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General railway discussions

Allandale25 said:
www.stthomastoday.ca

New rail operator to link St. Thomas with Aylmer and Tillsonburg

It's not quite a return to the city's glory days of railroading, however starting this week a third railway op...
www.stthomastoday.ca www.stthomastoday.ca
Click to expand...

More details here:
www.trains.com

GIO Rail prepares to start service on CN Cayuga Subdivision - Trains

ST. THOMAS, Ontario — One week after the GIO Railway Corp. ran the final train on one Ontario short line, it debuted on another route. On Christmas Eve, Canadian National’s Cayuga Subdivision saw its first train since April 30, 2020, when Ontario Southland discontinued operation on the 30-mile...
www.trains.com www.trains.com
 
TRONto said:

World's second largest mining corporation orders four Wabtec battery-electric locomotives

Wabtec announced that mining company Rio Tinto placed an order for four of its FLXdrive battery-electric locomotives to reduce its emissions.
electrek.co electrek.co

Prototype - up to 350 miles. (Cross-posted to Coming disruption to transport and Go Transit Electrification)
Click to expand...

I am not sure about the specifics of this particular operation, but battery electric vehicles (be it trains or trucks) can work especially well for certain mining and forestry operations where the route is mostly downhill when loaded and mostly uphill when empty. Given that the port will be at sea level, it is likely that the mine will be at a higher elevation, so regenerative braking can capture the potential energy contained by the load at its higher initial elevation.
 
roger1818 said:
I am not sure about the specifics of this particular operation, but battery electric vehicles (be it trains or trucks) can work especially well for certain mining and forestry operations where the route is mostly downhill when loaded and mostly uphill when empty. Given that the port will be at sea level, it is likely that the mine will be at a higher elevation, so regenerative braking can capture the potential energy contained by the load at its higher initial elevation.
Click to expand...

The Hammersley & Robe River line's main inland centre of operations is at Tom Price, which is elevation 747m. The railway connects this location with the sea-level port at Dampier.

Rio Tinto's trains are extremely long and heavy. The article does not imply that diesels will be completely eliminated. But one or two battery locomotives could handle the task of getting trains started, and maintaining momentum, collecting energy from regen braking on the downhill, with diesels adding power only on particular locations or situations. That would likely be hugely economical and carbon-efficient.

- Paul
 
^ Maybe others like @crs1026 know better but wasn't there an ethanol plant in Havelock that had a connecting track? Was this the former 3M plant? Not sure if it's the same plant as mentioned in the news release.
 
Allandale25 said:
^ Maybe others like @crs1026 know better but wasn't there an ethanol plant in Havelock that had a connecting track? Was this the former 3M plant? Not sure if it's the same plant as mentioned in the news release.
Click to expand...

Kawartha Ethanol is located north of Highway 7 east of Havelock, at one of the mineral pits which used to have a spur off the Havelock Sub, but I'm not aware of any rail-related business the ethanol plant generated, unless there was a transload at Havelock Yard. I don't know what their expansion plans amount to in terms of volume.
So long as the mineral business holds up, one could always envision shipping ethanol by rail (and grain/fuel in) as cars added to the triweekly mineral train, but the plant would have to be a lot bigger to generate much interest as a standalone customer.

- Paul
 
crs1026 said:
A,though it’s not an earth shattering move forward, today’s Ministerial announcement is actually a positive sign that some form of Positive Train Control is coming.

Government of Canada takes steps toward implementing innovative technologies to improve rail safety

/CNW/ - The Government of Canada remains committed to protecting Canadians who live and work along rail lines, which is why it continues to encourage railways...
www.newswire.ca www.newswire.ca

- Paul
Click to expand...
Sure would be nice if we could start building new railway lines.
 
kamira51 said:
Sure would be nice if we could start building new railway lines.
Click to expand...
To where?

There are certainly proposals, particularly with respect to mineral extraction, but the huge costs need to align to the projected output and demand/price for the commodities to be shipped. And there has to be the prospect for sustained operation over a very long time frame…. Which mining often can’t guarantee.
The original railway building era from 1880 to 1920 led to a far overbuilt natuonal network - many of those old lines weren’t really needed even back before the highway network was built. Lots of lines that never broke even and were lucky to see a train a day. Today’s investment community eould never get behind some of those business cases.
One can argue that we allowed our network to be pared too far - but I don’t see much appetite for restoring much of what we lost.

- Paul
 
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