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Good point. Wikipedia suggests that there are battery powered locomotives - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_locomotive#Electric_lo...

Charging such a massive ammount of batteries quickly could potentially be problematic.

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I think the right strategy for charging a locomotive battery pack would be to install a short section of 25kV catenary at the station/layover facility at the end of the route. Amtrak has some HHP-8 locomotives which are 8000 horsepower, about 5 megawatts, which demonstrate that carrying about 5 megawatts through a catenary system to a locomotive is not terribly difficult.

Recharging will take longer than refuelling a diesel, but if the recharging can be done in under an hour, that's probably tolerable.

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