How many miles per gallon does a diesel-electric locomotive get?
The train travels at 40 mph. In one hour, it will travel 40 miles and consume 310 gallons of diesel fuel between the three locomotives, or 7.75 gallons for every mile. That's about 0.13 miles per gallon, hardly 400 miles per gallon.
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1000 miles between refuellings would not be unreasonable for a road locomotive with a 4000 gallon tank averaging 40 mph on a line with a maximum grade of 1%. However I would want refuel before I am running on the bottom third of the tank, so perhaps 700 miles is more realistic.
Bicycle. A standard lightweight, moderate-speed bicycle is one of the most energy-efficient forms of transport. Compared with walking, a 64 kg (140 lb) cyclist riding at 16 km/h (10 mph) requires about half the food energy per unit distance: 27 kcal/km, 3.1 kW·h (11 MJ) per 100 km, or 43 kcal/mi.
Power plant capacity is far greater than any individual locomotive uses, so electric locomotives can have a higher power output than diesel locomotives and they can produce even higher short-term surge power for fast acceleration.
Electric Trains vs.Diesel-powered trains transfer about 30-35 percent of the energy generated by combustion to the wheels, while supplying electricity directly from an overhead powerline transfers about 95 percent of the energy to the wheels.