Sunday, August 21, 2016

Environmentalists and conservationists frequently talk about trains as an answer in the climate crisis.

But, do they know exactly what they are talking about?

People concerned with the climate crisis, which should be the entire world by now, would be pleasantly surprised, it isn't diesel fuel that pulls the freight. It is the wheels that pull the freight and they are powered with electricity. The diesel engine of a locomotive is the power house that supplies the electricity to the wheels.

Diesel locomotives, (click here) technically known as diesel-electrics, came into widespread use here in the United States with the development of the Electro-Motive Corporation’s (EMC, later to become the General Motors' Electro-Motive Division, or EMD) EA/EB design, first tested on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O) in the late 1930s. The diesel-electric locomotive would also become a major milestone in technological development for North American railroads as it symbolized the end of the only motive power type (aside from electrics) to be used in the industry up until that time, the steam locomotive....