How much does a new diesel electric locomotive cost?
Ever check out the list prices of brand-new main line diesel-electric locomotives? They are expensive, about $3 million each.
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CN declined to say how much it is spending on the locomotives, but an industry source said they cost about $3-million (U.S.) each. The 195-tonne locomotives produce 4,500 horsepower and can pull a freight train at 110 kilometres an hour, GE says.
General Electric Co. is the world's largest builder of diesel-electric locomotives. Its products are used by numerous railroads to haul freight and passengers. Thousands of GE machines are in operation every day throughout the world.
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.
The Evolution Locomotive is the most advanced, fuel-efficient, and environmentally clean diesel locomotive in history. It is a hybrid diesel-electric locomotive that captures braking energy and stores it in batteries and allows railroads to move a ton of freight nearly 500 miles on a single gallon of fuel.
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.
Usually 30 to 50 years but a diesel engine might be replaced by a more modern and efficient model after half that time. Likewise a locomotive's electronics can be upgraded, or adjustments to new signalling systems made.
The life expectancy of diesel-electric and electric locomotives is expected to be similar—about 25 years. Both types of motive power are subject to technological obsolescence.
In the US, yes you can buy a train. Where you store it would be up to you. Most private trains are either stored on private tracks owned by their owners, or they rent some storage on someone else's tracks. If you want to buy a new train, you would talk to the train manufacturers; or you can buy a used train.
Re: How many cars can a loco pull? The two important questions are how fast do you want them to run and how steep is the grade. One unit can easily pull 100 cars on the flat if you only want it to go 10-12 mph. Put it on a 2% grade and a 3000 hp unit can only pull about 6-8 cars at about 15 mph.
What gives the power of a locomotive to move so much weight? A modern railcar has a gross capacity of 286,000 lbs or 125.5 tons moving in trains consisting of 100 cars or more, yielding a total carrying capacity of 12,500 tons, an increase of over 181% in carrying capacity. It depends on the locomotive.
Hydrogen-powered fuel cells, combined with batteries to store electricity, would be a zero-emissions solution to replace the diesel-electric locomotive, Moslener says.