Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins
There is a lot of unused space under that long hood. One would think if there is room on a car to add meaningful battery capacity for regenerative power storage, there would certainly be plenty on a locomotive. There is just no incentive to do so.
In the same vein, most folks would be surprised to learn that there are absolutely no emissions standards for locomotives. My God do these things ever belch pollutants. Granted, their emissions per ton-mile are a fraction that of over the road trucks, but it is rather surprising that they are completely unregulated. Ocean going vessels are even worse, by the way. I wonder how something like a Big Boy would measure up by today's standards.
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If there were powers losses to be gained back, wouldn't they be doing it?
It is likely the situations where these brakes are used are such intense spikes that battery tech of the time couldn't handle it without going kaboom.
Then those batteries have to hauled up the hills.
Imagine the energy going to a flywheel, braking, for a train, on a steep downgrade. How heavy, how fast, would that flywheel need to be?