The Cost Savings of Steam Today.

[NW Mailing List]

John:
 
I would be interested in reading the paper.  thanks for your work
 
George Weber
NCTMF, Rail Operations

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Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2008 1:50 PM
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Subject: The Cost Savings of Steam Today.


Group:

I have just finished a 2+ year project comparing the economics of the
diesel locomotive and the modern steam locomotive.  The following is an
excerpt from my paper:

"A coal-fueled locomotive could achieve a 64.2% average cost savings
over the
current petroleum diesel-fueled locomotive. This comparison is based on
ton-miles per
dollar of fuel consumed in calendar year 2006. US Class I railroads
burned 4.2 billion
gallons of diesel fuel in 2006, costing $8.1 billion. The dollar value
of coal that would 
accomplish the same amount of "work" is only $3.0 billion, according to
calculations.
This is a cost savings of $5.1 billion in the single year of 2006. That
is an incredible
cost savings over the use of diesel fuel, which is largely imported,
compared to coal, 
which is mined locally in the US. Those 4.2 billion gallons of diesel
fuel comprise 6.6%
of the nation's diesel fuel use. That quantity of diesel fuel could be
replaced by 72.3
million tons of coal, equivalent to only 6.2% of the 1.16 billion ton
yearly production
of coal."

This modern steam locomotive would be powered by coal and be
environmentally responsible, low maintenance and conform to the needs of
railroads today. 

If anyone is interested in reading the paper (it is a 100+ page PDF).  I
can ask the moderator to post it for the group.

I hope you find this interesting,

John Rhodes

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