Natural gas for locomotives?

[buzz456]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... _whatsNews

[PapaXpress]

MadMike showed me that last night. An interesting turn around.

[BNSFdude]

BN did this back in the 80s/90s with a set of special rigged SD40-2s with larger cooling radiators.

[1225fan5358]

Wouldn't they have to modify a lot of engines if a railroad tried that as a perminant thing? Ain't nobody got time fo dat!!!!

[5292nate]

Isn't Natural gas, a lot more volatile than desil? Think of the derailments. They would be very costly, and with fewer survivors.

[donjgatlin]

I doubt any progress will be made with this. It would probably be too costly to modify locomotives and to have to build new service stations or at least tanks to contain the gasses. I'm not 110% sure, but isn't natural gas normally in a gaseous state? If so, how would you compress enough or liquefy it to fit into a locomotive? I think this will just be another one of those experiments that just proves to be useless or impractical. This may work for switcher or low-power units, but I don't think road units be able to do this. Also, anyone know how much Natural gas is available or the costs compared to creating diesel from crude oil?

[mapitts]

NG is in a gaseous state unless compressed and liquified. You can also convert LPG into NG. We do that at work. The one thing that is setting in the back of my mind is are they going to run straight NG or mix it with diesel? Propane and NG is to diesel fuel what nitrous oxide is to gasoline. NG has to be spark ingnited.

[thecanadianrail]

CN has had a pair of them rigged up for the past little while running between Edmonton and Fort McMurray...

[buzz456]

I bet the engineers are real excited about sitting between a crossing truck and a couple of tanks of LNG.

[1225fan5358]

Yeah, ikr? "Well now were DOUBLE screwed, thanks to the "brilliant" mind who thought this up."

[stresstool]

Sounds like these might get another shot:

Turbine Electric prime movers

[mapitts]

Sounds like these might get another shot:

Turbine Electric prime movers

That one had been discussed as well. About 12 years or so ago, the railroads were looking into turbine power again. Extra 2200 South had an article about it. Turbines have become a lot smaller now than what UP was using. NG is cleaner, the only thing is that they consume just about as much fuel at idle as they do under full load.