BNSF And Wabtec Prepare To Test Battery-Electric Locomotive
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Railway Gazette.
Some points from the article.
- It is a 4,400 hp or 3.3 MW locomotive.
- The battery is formed from 20,000 cells.
- The locomotive uses regenerative braking.
- Testing will be on a 560 km route in California.
But what I find interesting, is that the locomotive is designed to work commonly with a diesel locomotive and this is discussed in detail.
I have this feeling, that running two different locomotives as a pair might be more efficient and I wrote Could A Battery- Or Hydrogen-Powered Freight Locomotive Borrow A Feature Of A Steam Locomotive?, where I examined the concept.
In the article, they say that when a train hauled by a diesel and a battery locomotive, slows, the batteries are recharged. This would seem to make the combination more efficient.
I’ll be interested to see the results of the tests performed by BNSF and Wabtec.
The Anonymous Widower 
Little Newark can be totally bypassed using two ‘fast’ tracks of the ECML. About 5 miles of new track across fields. The two slow tracks can enter Newark. This removes a kink for the line keeping speeds up.
Comment by John | July 9, 2020 |