Room 101 - Steam, Diesel or Electric trains?

The Swiss did this during WW2 to save coal in their shunters (the main lines were electric). The pantograph was mounted on the cab.

Bingo! Isn't the above exactly it? An electrically heated steam engine. Wind the pantograph out of the funnel!

Chuff chuff! 

With opinionated tongue in cheek…….

Diesel, regardless. They're just dull, noisy and an eco-disaster-zone.
Keep steam because it's fun, nicely sonorous and low enough quantities to not be a significant eco-threat (we could always heat the water some other way - see Electric below).
Day-to-day use electric because it's quiet, clean and efficient (but quite dull). Internal generation from fuel cell or maybe fission (in 20 years of course) because cables suck aesthetically, reliabilityally and infrastructurally.

Typical steam locomotives were less than 10% efficient. The relatively low boiler pressures and no condensors were the main limitation. Some experiments were made with higher steam pressures but they were difficult to fit within the loading gauge. The much higher cylinder pressures in a diesel engine allow efficiencies approaching 40%. 

I would have to put steam in Room 101 due to low efficiency, high pollution and interesting problems operating in sub zero temperatures. How do you ensure a water supply?

Russell Bulley: 
 

John Jacobs: 
 

The nostalgia for steam trains is all very well and is still an earner of tourist revenue. As an engineer I have to remember that a steam loco is only about 27% efficient. Sorry, but it goes into room 101.

And a car is 28-30%!

Well, that's just the thermal efficiency of the engine running off its tank/bunker. Is there a study of the overall journey efficiency, taking into account construction costs, etc. Even that doesn't account for pollution, accidents, etc.

John Jacobs: 
 

The nostalgia for steam trains is all very well and is still an earner of tourist revenue. As an engineer I have to remember that a steam loco is only about 27% efficient. Sorry, but it goes into room 101.

And a car is 28-30%!

The nostalgia for steam trains is all very well and is still an earner of tourist revenue. As an engineer I have to remember that a steam loco is only about 27% efficient. Sorry, but it goes into room 101.

Will the truck drivers also have to apply for a trolleybus licence before they can use these things?

The electric motorways seem to be based on the Siemens E-highway (dual pantograph, 670VDC) system trialed in Germany.

Oddly annex A of this report suggests it will be cheaper to electrify all our motorways, than about 10% of the railway.

I find that hard to believe, I think a lot of roadside substations will be needed, for a motorway full of fully loaded lorries will need more than a few kA...

Mike.