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Comment by daurnimator | Hacker News Reader

Why assume 4 hours with a recharge? I'm thinking closer to max 15 mins without a recharge. This would allow skipping electrification in some tunnels; in rail yards; on track segments shared with non-electrified trains; and anywhere that it's too hard to run electric lines.

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Sure... but now you're only saving a small percentage of the total electrification cost, and paying for increased cost, complexity, and maintenance of locomotives. It's not an obvious win.

Far as I can tell he's also off by a factor of 4.

Tesla 85hw battery pack 1200 lbs.

3000 kw X 4 hours = 1200 kwh.

1200kwh/85kw*1200 = 170,000 lbs.

A GE/NS Dash 8 weighs in at about 390,000lbs

210kwh for 3575 lbs comes from the tesla powepack specs:

https://www.tesla.com/powerpack

Furthermore, it makes zero sense to compare "3000kw x 4 hours" since diesel electric locomotives can run for N>>>4 hours.

Furthermore, you're comparing the weight of batteries alone compared to the weight of a whole locomotive.

> Furthermore, it makes zero sense to compare "3000kw x 4 hours" since diesel electric locomotives can run for N>>>4 hours.

This is simply you reframing the conversation from using batteries to allow hybrid electric trains to use short sections of non-electrified tracks to hybrid electric trains won't work because they don't have the range of a diesel locomotive.

I'm going to put this down as you're unwilling to argue fairly and thus lost this argument.

You're not comparing hybrid against diesel-electric, you're comparing hybrid against fully electric. The cost of putting batteries in your rolling stock might or might not be higher than electrifying the last 5%. Either way, it's small compared to the cost of electrifying the 95%.

Note that the eastern seaboard (with its bridges and tunnels and topography) is getting electrified; the long and flat midwest is not.

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