Wabtec Battery Operated Locomotive coming to the Bessemer

i grew up next to the b&le at the curtisville crossing,would love to know it times ,thanks

OK,

1.  What are the batteries made of

2.  If Lithium, where did the Li come from?

3.  Where did the electrons come from.  Outside of regenerative braking, they have to plug it into a socket.  What is generating the electricity?

Sometimes people think by plugging into the grid, they are "Green".  However if the power is coming from a coal fired plant, that loco overall by be causing more CO2 emissions than a diesel.

As Scotty says:  YOU CANNOT VIOLATE THE LAWS OF PHYSICS. In this case, Sir I Newton.

I believe that the engine's batteries are charged by excess power coming from other diesel engines in the consist when running on flat land.

When the train goes up hill, the battery locomotive provides extra power for the train.  When the train goes down hill, the battery locomotive provides dynamic braking and uses the electricity generated by the dynamic brakes to recharge the batteries.  It basically saves having another diesel oil powered locomotive in the consist.  NH Joe

@New Haven Joe posted:

I believe that the engine's batteries are charged by excess power coming from other diesel engines in the consist when running on flat land.

Don't think so, as how would the "other Diesel engines" be electrically connected to the battery unit? Also, just what is "excess power"?

When the train goes up hill, the battery locomotive provides extra power for the train.  When the train goes down hill, the battery locomotive provides dynamic braking and uses the electricity generated by the dynamic brakes to recharge the batteries.  It basically saves having another diesel oil powered locomotive in the consist.  NH Joe

Except, it uses more "energy" from the batteries, that it receives from dynamic braking. Also, what it there are no mountain grades, and all that is required from the battery unit is POWER, i.e. never uses DB?

I copied this information from the Wabtec website:  

"The 430,000-pound FLXdrive in the pilot boasts 18,000 lithium-ion battery cells. The battery locomotive charged at the rail yard and recharged during the trip through regenerative braking. The FLXdrive manages the overall train energy flow and distribution through its Trip Optimizer system, an intelligent cruise control system programmed through artificial intelligence to respond to every twist and grade of the track in the most energy-efficient way possible."

The website says that using this locomotive results in a 30% fuel savings.  CN has plenty of mountain grades where this locomotive can be used.  NH Joe

Getting power from another engine like a slug maybe is something WABTEC needs to look at with future like locomotives.

But did BNSF test this on Cajon?

@New Haven Joe posted:

The website says that using this locomotive results in a 30% fuel savings.  CN has plenty of mountain grades where this locomotive can be used.  NH Joe

Except as the press release states, they're going to use it on the Bessemer and Lake Erie.

I'm all for examining options, be it battery, hybrid, LNG or even hydrogen.  But I'm not ready to declare this the ultimate solution.  It may take several years to determine the true effectiveness of the Wabtec unit.

Rusty

@New Haven Joe posted:

I copied this information from the Wabtec website:  

"The 430,000-pound FLXdrive in the pilot boasts 18,000 lithium-ion battery cells. The battery locomotive charged at the rail yard and recharged during the trip through regenerative braking. The FLXdrive manages the overall train energy flow and distribution through its Trip Optimizer system, an intelligent cruise control system programmed through artificial intelligence to respond to every twist and grade of the track in the most energy-efficient way possible."

The website says that using this locomotive results in a 30% fuel savings.  CN has plenty of mountain grades where this locomotive can be used.  NH Joe

Yes, MAYBE 30% in fuel savings.  BUT, you lose all that with the ridiculous amount of additional maintenance cost and loss of revenue due to there being no one "qualified" to make repairs.

@CO2707 posted:

Yes, MAYBE 30% in fuel savings.  BUT, you lose all that with the ridiculous amount of additional maintenance cost and loss of revenue due to there being no one "qualified" to make repairs.

The FLXdrive locomotive is an experimental unit.  Maintenance should be less than with a conventional locomotive because it doesn't have an internal combustion engine and all the other things that are associated with internal combustion engines such as cooling systems, turbo chargers, etc.  The same goes for repairs.  All electric vehicles generally need far fewer repairs than fossil fuel vehicles.  

This is an experiment.  It might work, it might not.  We will probably know if it works within about 5 years.  I think that there will be many more battery experiments in both railroading and trucking during the next few years.

Up until now, most battery experiments in railroading have failed.  However, the technology is rapidly advancing and we may see something that makes battery power or something similar the preferred railroad power source in the next few years.  NH Joe

It's not mentioned in this thread, but here it is.

All Aboard: GE Merges Its Storied Locomotive Business With Wabtec In A Deal Valued At Approximately $11.1 Billion May 21, 2018. Wabtec was Westinghouse Air Brake Company.

All this info is on GE and Wabtec's websites.