Western Railroad Discussion > BNSF and LNG/natural gas locomotives

See here:

http://governor.nd.gov/media-center/news/dalrymple-encourages-bnsf-build-natural-gas-plant-locomotive-refueling-station-nor

Here's another related article:

http://www.chron.com/business/energy/article/It-s-a-slow-road-for-natural-gas-locomotives-4218352.php



Allen



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 03/05/13 15:51 by bradleymckay.

Be interesting to see if the results are different than BN's, UP's, and CSX's first foray into Natural Gas powered locos.

Jay

EMDProgressRailCat is betting heavily on natural gas.

Jim Cramer from CNBC's Mad Money has a story mentioning Buffet's interest in LNG locomotives...

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100519848

Mr. MRL

Bloomberg just had a few words about it as well, claimed it may be as significant as moving away from the steam engine.

I did believe the part about BNSF consumption of diesel is second behind the U.S. Navy.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324539404578342540494619344.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection

Excerpt:

A potential shift to gas faces many hurdles, however, including getting approval from federal regulators on fuel-tank safety. Introducing gas also will require different fuel depots, special tanker cars to carry the fuel and training for depot workers.

That won't come cheaply. Just retrofitting a diesel locomotive and adding the tanker car could add 50% to a locomotive's roughly $2 million price tag, though that increase would diminish as economies of scale take hold.

Mr. Rose said his company nevertheless would quickly move to a "retrofit of existing road locomotives" if the pilot locomotives prove reliable. The pilot trains are expected to get rolling this fall in the hopes retrofitting could begin about a year later.

Some experts say switching railroads to natural gas could take time.

Canadian National Railway Co. in September retrofitted two locomotives to run on a mixture of 90% LNG and 10% diesel. A spokesman for the company, the largest railroad in Canada, said there would be "mechanical and fuel logistics challenges" with widespread conversion and that it was too early to determine if the pilot program was successful.

The dual-fuel technology "is not a slam dunk," said Lorenzo Simonelli, the president of GE's transportation business. But "we are working with BNSF as well as other [large railroads] to provide them the pilots and then start working towards a full production of locomotives and retrofits."


BobE

Clean Energy, Inc is installing natural gas fueling points in major truck stops (FLying J is one participant). In looking at their map, it wouldn't be at all difficult to add NG fueling points at major locations on the BNSF. The big maker of conversion kits for large truck engines to NG is Westport Innovations. They supply engines to CAT, Cummins, Deere, etc

Not recommending any of these firms, of course.

Having NG powered locomotives would probably limit their use in run-through trains however.


[Edit to Add] Shell Canada intends to build a small small liquefaction plant in Ontario to convert natural gas to a transportation fuel.

Converting a decent % of buses and over the road trucks to natural gas will make a significant dent in the use of diesel fuels. And pollution.]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/06/13 06:42 by Lackawanna484.

This isnt new.

The LA Jct RR had a couple of LNG units.

If I recall correctly

Jerry Martin
Los Angeles, CA
Central Coast Railroad Festival

I'm guessing that the most effective use would be for terminal switchers as opposed to road locomotives. That would mitigate some of the pollution regulations. Doesn't seem to be something that could replace diesel, but somehow offer it's own advantages while reducing the fuel costs. Maybe something to do with the GenSet rage, or maybe re-working some of the older B-truck units.

Anything going on with Tax benefits?

Constructing a cryogenic "dewar" tender to hold the LNG that could deal with the buffeting (pun intended) of RR service
would seem to be a daunting task. In my mind's ear I can hear the frenzied outrage of the NIMBYs who will bring up the volatile nature of LNG and produce pictures of the Cleveland, OH detonation of a LNG storage tank many decades ago.

BN had a CNG (compressed natural gas) engine assigned to Northfield Yard near Minneapolis, MN which had a "tender" in the form of a flatcar with long cylinders.

Be Well,

Tim Colbert K3HX

What next? A Hydrogen fuel cell locomotive? Oh wait, they already tried that.

ddg Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What next? A Hydrogen fuel cell locomotive? Oh
> wait, they already tried that.

HAH! Well Played!