blimphangar Wrote:
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> All railroads should investigate the profit of
> regenerative energy.
> If they do not, they are be being really stupid
> about this.

Before you make statements about railroads being "really stupid" you may want to do a little research as to why the Milwaukee Road discontinued its electric operations in 1974. If the economics worked out, I'm sure the Milwaukee Road would have kept its electric operations in Montana and Washington (and perhaps even closed the gap between electric operations). Moreover, the Milwaukee Road discontinued its electric operations during the first major energy crisis when the price of petroleum skyrocketed.

Conrail inherited a modest electric freight operation from Penn Central (which did consider extending its electric lines from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh), but it also discontinued electric freight operations around 1980 (just after the second energy crisis).