Room 101 - Steam, Diesel or Electric trains?

The decision not to electrify that line may be being undecided soon .

Govts and decisions eh.

Mike.

mapj1: 
 

Well it looks like the consensus is in luck   

“The UK Government has announced that diesel-only trains will be phased out by 2040. Currently, 29% of the UK’s fleet is diesel and the move has been received positively by campaigners. But what does the phase-out involve? ”

I suspect there will be a few bridges to be raised for electrics then, or trains that can accept a supply from a gapped line without hiccuping. 

Mind you

“42% of the UK’s network is currently electrified, putting it behind the Netherlands (76%), Italy (71%) and Spain (61%). ”

Other sources suggest that France and Germany are both around the 50% mark

Mike.

 

The UK were well ahead of the rest of Europe on building railways, good at the time but as other nations caught up lessons learned and purpose built lines for electrification, most have surpassed us on electrification years ago.

We have too many existing lines in the too hard to do box but you will find that any new line, even if its for diesel rolling stock will have provision built in for future electrification now.

We do this a lot - we built the first XYZ in the world, and then say “OK that'll do” and never bother to improve it. Others then make a succession of  better ones, and we look surprised when we are overtaken.

It is quite pleasant to be native of a country that is a living museum, but there are times it is not appropriate, and when a change is required, it is clearly not good that all the folk who originally understood  something have retired, and no-one dares change anything in case it breaks.

mike.

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.

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

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.

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%!

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.