Western Railroad Discussion > bnsf testing a new engine 3000

At tehachpi,ca setting out some cars with test car

               tom

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from watching the webcam it looks like they switched around two flat cars and two tanks not actually drooping off cars 

Maybe the two flats of rail which are shiftable were next to hazmat tanks and they cannot be placed next to hazmat tanks so they cut the cement cars in  

I'd be interested in knowing what these units sound like?  Kind of like a large Prius???

Here is a bit of info: https://www.wabteccorp.com

take away....  Reduces emissions by 10%.    I would have expected a lot more than that.    After all is said and done, batteries continue to be pretty dangerous,  and expensive to replace.  One fire with this thing, and it will get shelved for years.  So far, its seems like there is only so much energy u can store and retireve from a battery without consequences.   I guess we'll see.   I just continue to be leary of batteries.
Even with the success of Hybrid and electric cars...I still think that "hooking a whole bunch of car batteries in parrallel" , would still have its problems...

I would vote to have the CARB defunded and that money go toward more public transportation.   They seem to be a bunch flower children  who think they can solve world polution by throwing money at it.  

Battery powered cowl unit!

I don’t believe that batteries are quite as dangerous as you think. Pretty well proven in many applications. A hybrid locomotive makes sense.  

pdt Wrote:
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> take away....  Reduces emissions by 10%.    I
> would have expected a lot more than that.   
> After all is said and done, batteries continue to
> be pretty dangerous,  and expensive to replace. 
> One fire with this thing, and it will get shelved
> for years.  So far, its seems like there is only
> so much energy u can store and retireve from a
> battery without consequences.   I guess we'll
> see.   I just continue to be leary of
> batteries.
> Even with the success of Hybrid and electric
> cars...I still think that "hooking a whole bunch
> of car batteries in parrallel" , would still have
> its problems...
>
> I would vote to have the CARB defunded and that
> money go toward more public transportation.  
> They seem to be a bunch flower children  who
> think they can solve world polution by throwing
> money at it.  



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/13/21 21:11 by stanhunter.

3000 is hardly a hybrid, it's a battery electric unit and certainly not in the sense we see hybrid automobiles. I'd say the
thing is silly if not for the fact that Wabtec is alreadly promising a 6 kw unit. Problem now is that it has a 30-40 minute
power cycle and it's twice that from Bena to Tehachapi. 

Out 

stanhunter Wrote:
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> I don’t believe that batteries are quite as
> dangerous as you think. Pretty well proven in many
> applications. A hybrid locomotive makes sense.
[snip]
As a retired Volunteer Firefighter, I can tell you the lithium batteries are dangerous. Do you remember the Samsung phones that caught on fire? How about the UPS flight in Dubai that was caused by lithium batteries catching fire? Lithium is a flammable metal. Flammable metal fires are very hard to put out. They generate allot of heat and if you put water on them it makes things worse. The fire is so hot that it breaks water down into to it's elemental state, i.e. two molecules of hydrogen and one molecule of oxygen. If the insulation between cells breaks down or a cell shorts, the batteries can go into thermal runaway. What you will be left with is glob of glowing metal sitting in the middle of the tracks. It would give new meaning to the nickname "toaster"! Oh, not to mention the damage to the rail and track bed.

KY_Railfan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> stanhunter Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I don’t believe that batteries are quite as
> > dangerous as you think. Pretty well proven in
> many
> > applications. A hybrid locomotive makes sense.
>
> As a retired Volunteer Firefighter, I can tell you
> the lithium batteries are dangerous. Do you
> remember the Samsung phones that caught on fire?
> How about the UPS flight in Dubai that was caused
> by lithium batteries catching fire? Lithium is a
> flammable metal. Flammable metal fires are very
> hard to put out. They generate allot of heat and
> if you put water on them it makes things worse.
> The fire is so hot that it breaks water down into
> to it's elemental state, i.e. two molecules of
> hydrogen and one molecule of oxygen. If the
> insulation between cells breaks down or a cell
> shorts, the batteries can go into thermal runaway.
> What you will be left with is glob of glowing
> metal sitting in the middle of the tracks. It
> would give new meaning to the nickname "toaster"!
> Oh, not to mention the damage to the rail and
> track bed.

Locomotoves have always exploded, caught fire etc. If someone today came up for the first time with the idea of using several thousand gallons of diesel oil there'd by people seeing 'you can't do that it's dangerous'!
Oh, and a molecule of water breaks down into two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen, not into two molecules of hydrogen and one of oxygen.

KY_Railfan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> stanhunter Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I don’t believe that batteries are quite as
> > dangerous as you think. Pretty well proven in
> many
> > applications. A hybrid locomotive makes sense.
>
> As a retired Volunteer Firefighter, I can tell you
> the lithium batteries are dangerous. Do you
> remember the Samsung phones that caught on fire?
> How about the UPS flight in Dubai that was caused
> by lithium batteries catching fire? Lithium is a
> flammable metal. Flammable metal fires are very
> hard to put out. They generate allot of heat and
> if you put water on them it makes things worse.
> The fire is so hot that it breaks water down into
> to it's elemental state, i.e. two molecules of
> hydrogen and one molecule of oxygen. If the
> insulation between cells breaks down or a cell
> shorts, the batteries can go into thermal runaway.
> What you will be left with is glob of glowing
> metal sitting in the middle of the tracks. It
> would give new meaning to the nickname "toaster"!
> Oh, not to mention the damage to the rail and
> track bed.


And the tech has advanced a lot in the past 10 years or so.
The lithium batteries used in these applications are NOT the lithium batteries you dealt with before.

Interesting, from the photo you can see they built it with the BNSF C4 traction motor arrangement.  Would that cause it to use less battery voltage than the traditional 6 traction motor arrangement?