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Re: Ukraine Grain By Standard Gauge Rail?- I suspect that availability of cars and locos would be a bigger problem.
Author: BOB2
Date: 06-17-2022 - 09:12
The rail gauge change would not work for the simple reason that the entire grain car and locomotive fleet of the Ukraine is wide gauge. This is a poorly performing "plan B" which will be very costly and simply not move the grain volumes that the Ports on the Black Sea moved.
I am frankly waiting for NATO to declare the western Black Sea a combatant exclusion zone, re-flag carriers under NATO registered nations, and escort those ships to within 100 km of the belligerent coasts (where the Ukrainians have established clear naval superiority and can protect the grain ships in their waters).
The day Putin dies, you really will want to get the first word, so you can make a killing by short selling the energy and grain fuutures. Worldwide over 120 countries produce natural gas and oil, and production levels at these price are creating a huge drop in demand (slowing driving, slowing air travel, slowing tourism), and there was huge build up of oil and distillate inventories which came as a shock this week.
The only domestic railroad news here from this is the small increases in coal exports by rail, and the slow down in natural gas conversion from coal for electrical generation, due to high natural gas prices.
A better reason for rail line reconnect of the NWP and reopening the line to Fort Bragg by the Sierra group might actually be to deliver five thousand off-shore windmills and blades when we finally "wake up" and lease out the Euraka shelf for wind energy.
I still remember T. Boone's wind maps in the private meeting with Antonovich back in the mid 200's. And, with all of that 24/7 wind, his plans for making hydrogen to fuel the fuel cell powered trucks we were already using experimentally, as far back as 2002.
The mess we're in from dependence on ustable regimes for oil and gas will actually make renewables like wind much more cost competitive, than gas conversions for electrical production. We now have arrays of zero emission hydrogen fuel cells that can power a rail passenger car, and multiple arrays could probably power a freight locomotive with today's technology.
If the bipedal hairless upright chimps can just keep calm, and not surrender to the usual short term fear and ignorance, the grand kids might just survive our stupidity after all.....?
I am frankly waiting for NATO to declare the western Black Sea a combatant exclusion zone, re-flag carriers under NATO registered nations, and escort those ships to within 100 km of the belligerent coasts (where the Ukrainians have established clear naval superiority and can protect the grain ships in their waters).
The day Putin dies, you really will want to get the first word, so you can make a killing by short selling the energy and grain fuutures. Worldwide over 120 countries produce natural gas and oil, and production levels at these price are creating a huge drop in demand (slowing driving, slowing air travel, slowing tourism), and there was huge build up of oil and distillate inventories which came as a shock this week.
The only domestic railroad news here from this is the small increases in coal exports by rail, and the slow down in natural gas conversion from coal for electrical generation, due to high natural gas prices.
A better reason for rail line reconnect of the NWP and reopening the line to Fort Bragg by the Sierra group might actually be to deliver five thousand off-shore windmills and blades when we finally "wake up" and lease out the Euraka shelf for wind energy.
I still remember T. Boone's wind maps in the private meeting with Antonovich back in the mid 200's. And, with all of that 24/7 wind, his plans for making hydrogen to fuel the fuel cell powered trucks we were already using experimentally, as far back as 2002.
The mess we're in from dependence on ustable regimes for oil and gas will actually make renewables like wind much more cost competitive, than gas conversions for electrical production. We now have arrays of zero emission hydrogen fuel cells that can power a rail passenger car, and multiple arrays could probably power a freight locomotive with today's technology.
If the bipedal hairless upright chimps can just keep calm, and not surrender to the usual short term fear and ignorance, the grand kids might just survive our stupidity after all.....?
