Z-Train Wrote:
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> blimphangar Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > 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).


I'm not so sure that the "economics" of the Milwaukee electric operations were the primary driver in the decision to abandon electrification in favor of only diesels. One school of thought is that the Milwaukee board of directors believed that there was no future for an independent Milwaukee, and were preparing the Milwaukee to be merged into the BM, as the only way forward. And that would mean that interoperability of the MILW locomotives with the BN fleet was more important than whether or not the continued use of electification was cost effective.

The re-use of energy from dynamic braking is not tied to electric-only locomotives. Brookville Equipment is currently marketing diesel locomotives that re-use dynamic braking energy to drive parasitic loads (like an air compressor, for instance.) That re-use allows less fuel to be used overall, and is equivalent to putting it back into the electric grid. The primary issue with reusing more dynamic brake energy is how to store it in an affordable manner. I have no doubt as this technology advances for other vehicles, locomotives will also take more advantage of it as well.

[www.brookvilleequipment.com]