| Posted by FSWood on March 1, 2016 | |
Speaking of solvent, wonder if the paint is cured yet on that shiny IC boxcar. Would be interesting to know what the shipping/lading instructions attached to its and previous car's door were.
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Freight under catenary - when one wants a peek at the future, they need only look back into the past.
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I know Amtrak has electrified service, but why did pretty much everybody else give up on it especially for freight service?
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| Posted by FSWood on March 20, 2016 | |
Probably because of the expense of building multiple thousands of miles of catenary network. And then on top of that, the expense of the electric locomotives too, when you could just get a diesel-electric and be done with the matter.
And a lot of what electric railway infrastructure existed in the first half of the 20th century was worn out after World War 2, on account of heavy use and deferred maintenance, requiring expensive replacement.
Not exactly that but related is this current news from the trade magazine Railway Gazette. Quote, "
"energy policy ‘is still giving us cause for concern’. The EEG feed-in tariff surcharge increased €50m to €150m, and with 80% of traction energy being electrical, this is making rail less competitive as the cost of diesel falls.""
From article; DB needs ‘quality, quality and more quality’ to return to economic success
17 Mar 2016
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