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Santa Fe steam engine to be rebuilt to a "green" loco
Author: Graham Buxton
Date: 05-22-2012 - 10:50
Its past April Fools Day, and this appears to not be a joke, but it is certainly strange! 
Its not clear from this what Santa Fe locomotive is the one at the center of this project. Anyone know what engine the Great Overland Station Museum might have had possession of?
Quote:University of Minnesota
MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (05/22/2012) —Plans to create the world’s first carbon-neutral higher-speed locomotive were announced today by the Coalition for Sustainable Rail (CSR), a collaboration of the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment (IonE) and the nonprofit Sustainable Rail International (SRI). CSR draws on the carbon-neutral solid biofuel research expertise of the University of Minnesota and the modern steam mechanical engineering capabilities of SRI to develop the most powerful carbon-neutral locomotive to date.
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Preliminary research shows that CSR’s test locomotive will cost less to maintain and less to fuel, and will exhibit greater train handling performance than any diesel-electric locomotives available today. The modern steam locomotive has relied on technology that has been neglected for decades. This is about to change. With the ability to burn biocoal efficiently and without negative impact on the environment, CSR’s modern steam locomotive will also exhibit significantly better horsepower output at higher speeds than the current diesel-electric locomotives that pull the majority of passenger trains in the United States.
“This project presents a novel approach to U.S. locomotive development, looking to technologies of the past to inspire solutions for today’s sustainability challenges,” said SRI President Davidson Ward, a 2010 graduate of the School of Architecture in the College of Design at the University of Minnesota. “I’m confident that the leading energy researchers we’re working with at the University of Minnesota, along with our team of engineers, will be able to bring this technology to the forefront of America’s energy and transportation conversations.”
In November 2011, SRI acquired a large test bed steam locomotive through a transfer of ownership from the Great Overland Station Museum in Topeka, Kan. This locomotive, built in 1937 for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, will be reconfigured by SRI’s locomotive modernization experts, then tested as part of CSR Project 130.
Complete press release and more links available here:
[www1.umn.edu]
Its not clear from this what Santa Fe locomotive is the one at the center of this project. Anyone know what engine the Great Overland Station Museum might have had possession of?
Santa Fe steam engine to be rebuilt to a "green" loco