Has anyone done research on electrifying cargo rail?
It seems like this could be where battery swap would be the bees knees. Have a railcar(s?) with the batteries and swap them out at stops as needed.
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Electric trains (out of off-topic :-) )
- Thread starter ZachF
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Has anyone done research on electrifying cargo rail?
It seems like this could be where battery swap would be the bees knees. Have a railcar(s?) with the batteries and swap them out at stops as needed.
I’ve wondered about this, too. Diesel-electric->Battery-electric. I assume the energy density is just not there (yet).
Electric trains have been around for a long time and they do not need batteries:
edit: this one is from 1895:
True, but rather than adding tens of thousands of miles of HV power lines, would a battery car make sense?
I'd think that since trains have extraordinarily low rolling resistance weight isn't really a factor like it is for cars and planes. It's just a matter of supply and willingness.
I think electric trucks, especially autonomous electric trucks, are going to make rail shipping obsolete. Electric trucks will have all the advantages of rail plus be direct to destination. The downside I see is we may not have the roadway infrastructure for massive convoys of electric trucks.
Good point about the rolling resistance. The train needs most of the energy when accelerating from the start, once rolling it needs very little.
So, maybe a combined system would be the most effective:
1. Have overhead power lines for just a few miles around the stations (easy access to electricity supply, no need for long lines out in the wilderness) to help with initial acceleration
2. Have batteries to supply energy for cruising and be able to store energy from regenerative breaking
This way the battery cost is lowered compared to full BEV version (do not need high capacity for the initial acceleration), and HV line cost is significantly lowered compared to fully wired solution.
OK, so how many railcar roofs will it take to make a solar-powered railroad?
IMHO each of /Tesla's car carrier cars could essentially have it's own solar panels with the equivalent of say a model 3 power train driving the railcar wheels in sort of a distributed power generation arrangement that drives the whole train.
Compelling conversation; let's move it to another thread. I'll start.
Off topic galore
2 big "ifs". Yeah... but that would be what money, which was your question. Initial hypothesis you questioned is likely false though...
teslamotorsclub.com
Hopefully the MODS will move the rest of our railroad posts there. Long live our beloved MODS!!
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The TGV may offer a clue for you. High speed rail has become almost all electric:
The US system is among the most antiquated in technological terms.
The primary consequence of this for Tesla is that the Tesla Semi, operating as a 'highway train' can achieve nearly electric train efficiency, primarily because individual units could be added or deleted according to local shipping needs, while rail has large capital and space consequences to provide local shipping convenience.
This was discussed at length around the time fo the Tesla Semi reveal.
It’s gonna be hard to beat trains for bulk cargo.
Trucks are already somewhat subsidized too in that the amount of road taxes they pay is far less than the west and tear they cause on the roads.
Hopefully trainloads full of coal and oil will be diminishing also.
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