GO Transit Fleet Equipment and other

[reaperexpress]

This is fair, i was operating under the assumption that the battery would be charged via catenary and not by the 2nd diesel engine or regenerative braking, or that the loco would not have enough time operating under 50% output to charge the battery. But this still runs into the issue i expand on below... To run the engine at medium power and max out electric engine, would be a downgrade in power from current MP54ACs.

The only time the battery needs to be used is under acceleration (i.e. whenever you want more than 2MW of output), which is much less than half the time considering the trains also need to travel at constant speed, decelerate (which charges the battery as well), and stand still at stations. It doesn't take anywhere near 2MW for a GO train to cruise at constant speed.

I am on team EDMU over BEMU as well, although i have trouble calling this an EDMU at all. I don't think this applies to this situation... This is more a electro-diesel locomotive, if that. This is more equivalent to having a diesel locomotive and an electric locomotive on the same train.

Agreed, based on the diagrams this is not a dual-mode locomotive, but rather an ordinary diesel-electric locomotive with a battery for extra power. Or in other words, a hybrid.

For reference, the current MP54AC's are 2x2MW ICE. This "MP54ACE" is proposing 1x2MW ICE + 1x2MW battery. In other words, this MP54ACE's acceleration would be half as powerful if driven as electric than the MP54AC (2MW electric vs. 4MW diesel). Realistically, under operation both the ICE and battery would be operating, and when coasting under 50% utilisation, the ICE would recharge the battery.

Even then, this design wont improve acceleration at all. the engine output is the same under both scenarios, 4MW, and the body is the same, so same traction

Compare that to the Siemens Chargers, which the diesel-only variants hit 3.1MW, and the electro-diesel ones hit... 3.1MW ICE, 4.2MW electric. You can't operate both at the same time, as far as i'm aware- it's either running as a diesel or running electric.

Basically, i think this is at best a sidegrade for the user experience. While it gives a lot back in efficiency and reduced volume near stations, it would still be running diesel even in acceleration because the battery engine alone is not powerful enough to replace the diesel engine. Even in tandem, the power output is the same as a diesel variant.

I think your math seems plausible. I agree with your hypothesis that the train would not provide any noticeable improvement in user experience compared to the current 2x2MW ICE setup. It would not accelerate any faster, the only difference would be that it consumes less fuel.

In my opinion, the best option would be to build a power car, so you have the power car and the locomotive. This would mean under diesel the locomotive is hauling around a power car for nothing, but under electric it's able to draw much more power and utilise both power car and locomotive for even more traction and output. You also don't need to reduce the power of the main diesel locomotive, while not needing to run diesel on acceleration.

Yes if their goal was to actually improve travel times, it would be ideal to create a motorized coach with batteries that could link to the locomotive, similar to the setup on the upcoming dual-mode Amtrak Airo sets for the Empire / Maple Leaf / Adirondack corridor. That would double the number of powered axles from 4 to 8 and add the battery power in addition to the full power of the locomotive. The locomotive link would allow all 8 powered axles to provide regenerative braking power to the batteries.

But based on how GO assembles their trainsets, their objective seems to be to minimize operating expenses rather than attracting more riders. They seem to be satisfied with the absolutely glacial acceleration of the current trains.

 

[ssiguy2]

Yes, the current acceleration on the GO fleet is anemic but one has to remember that on the RER sections, GO will not be running the 12 car monsters they have now but probably 4 or 5 car trains so acceleration will improve.

The benefit of these EDMU/Loco is that their efficiency and operational performance will improve while prices actually go down. In 10 years when batteries have twice the power density but weigh half as much, the amount of diesel required will continue to decline, as will the size of the diesel engine, and the number and weight of the batteries.

By 2050 it is very possible that the size of the diesel engines won't be much larger than one for a car. The battery technology will have progressed so far, that the engine's sole purpose will simply be to continually charge the batteries, No expensive or weather sensitive catenary for EMUs while no range anxiety or recharging infrastructure of the BEMU. They could even be 100% clean if, instead of using small diesel engines, they used alternative bio-fuels.

BTW..........There are numerous ED locos already and the Netherlands runs EDMUs on regular routes. Stadler sells them as WINK trains which is part of the FLIRT family.