ben93 (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} ben93) wrote,@ 2005-09-08 10:31:00 |
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All things old are new again; A call for new steam locomotive development.
OK, I'll confess; I've been a steam locomotive fan since I was a small child. Odd, I know, to be so interested in a technology that had all but disappeared by the year I was born, but they have always had a peculiar appeal to me.
Given my bias, I will try very hard to be objective in what I am about to say;
America needs to develop a totally modern steam locomotive if we are to deal with peak oil and still have a modern transportation network.
The recent rise in the price of oil, and especially jet fuel and diesel fuel, and the acute shortages caused by hurricane Katrina have shown just how vulnerable our transportation network is to problems with the supply of this single resource. Literally everthing that you buy comes to your door only through transportation systems based on diesel fuel or jet fuel. Trains require diesel. Trucks require diesel. Ships require diesel (very few burn bunker oil any more). And though there are some short haul trucks that burn gasoline, the same shortages apply to them as well.
There are fuels available in the USA in great quantity that cannot be burned in an internal combustion engine; Coal, Peat, Scrapwood, Recycled wood fiber, Dessicated sewage, Farm waste, etc. These could be burned in domestic thermal power plants, and all of them excepting peat are so used, but electric power from a fixed site thermal power plant does not lend itself to vehicle power other than short-haul delivery and personal transport vehicles (which we need!) True. fixed site power could be used in rail transport with overhead catenary wires or with third-rails, but almost none of the nations track miles are so-equipped and the cost of an electrification effort on existing rights-of-way is staggering. Often it is close to the cost of simply building a new right-of-way.
The solution, as I see it, is to develop a thoroughly modern steam locomotive using all of the technical innovations that have appeared since steam locomotives were last built in this country; Welded boilers, modern alloys, amazingly reliable and frictionless bearings, efficient ejectors, superheaters, microprocessors, multiple unit controls, etc.
A steam locomotive built using computer simulation and CAD systems, with an additional fifty years of technology to draw upon, would not only rival diesel locomotives in efficiency, but would also be able to be designed to burn almost anything that will burn as fuel.
The additional infrastructure a steam locomotive requires; Fueling towers, Water standpipes, and Ash pits only need to be built at intervals along the right-of-way, and do not require the re-engineering of tens of thousands of miles of trackage as would electrification. To my mind this is a compelling economic argument.
If you want to read some more about modern steam locomotive efforts, especially the ACE locomotive which was proposed when last we thought about out energy future in the early 1980s, please visit The Ultimate Steam Page
OK, I'll confess; I've been a steam locomotive fan since I was a small child. Odd, I know, to be so interested in a technology that had all but disappeared by the year I was born, but they have always had a peculiar appeal to me.
Given my bias, I will try very hard to be objective in what I am about to say;
America needs to develop a totally modern steam locomotive if we are to deal with peak oil and still have a modern transportation network.
The recent rise in the price of oil, and especially jet fuel and diesel fuel, and the acute shortages caused by hurricane Katrina have shown just how vulnerable our transportation network is to problems with the supply of this single resource. Literally everthing that you buy comes to your door only through transportation systems based on diesel fuel or jet fuel. Trains require diesel. Trucks require diesel. Ships require diesel (very few burn bunker oil any more). And though there are some short haul trucks that burn gasoline, the same shortages apply to them as well.
There are fuels available in the USA in great quantity that cannot be burned in an internal combustion engine; Coal, Peat, Scrapwood, Recycled wood fiber, Dessicated sewage, Farm waste, etc. These could be burned in domestic thermal power plants, and all of them excepting peat are so used, but electric power from a fixed site thermal power plant does not lend itself to vehicle power other than short-haul delivery and personal transport vehicles (which we need!) True. fixed site power could be used in rail transport with overhead catenary wires or with third-rails, but almost none of the nations track miles are so-equipped and the cost of an electrification effort on existing rights-of-way is staggering. Often it is close to the cost of simply building a new right-of-way.
The solution, as I see it, is to develop a thoroughly modern steam locomotive using all of the technical innovations that have appeared since steam locomotives were last built in this country; Welded boilers, modern alloys, amazingly reliable and frictionless bearings, efficient ejectors, superheaters, microprocessors, multiple unit controls, etc.
A steam locomotive built using computer simulation and CAD systems, with an additional fifty years of technology to draw upon, would not only rival diesel locomotives in efficiency, but would also be able to be designed to burn almost anything that will burn as fuel.
The additional infrastructure a steam locomotive requires; Fueling towers, Water standpipes, and Ash pits only need to be built at intervals along the right-of-way, and do not require the re-engineering of tens of thousands of miles of trackage as would electrification. To my mind this is a compelling economic argument.
If you want to read some more about modern steam locomotive efforts, especially the ACE locomotive which was proposed when last we thought about out energy future in the early 1980s, please visit The Ultimate Steam Page
