This is a first for a major American railway company. Union Pacific has announced the entry into service of a hybrid switching locomotive that will operate at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, California.
The machine has an electric battery and a 290 horsepower diesel engine to power it when it is discharged. According to preliminary data, such a system could reduce fuel consumption by 40% to 70% and emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx).
of 80% to 90%. railway companies, which primarily use diesel, are increasingly subjected to the pressure of environmental services for the conversion of their rail fleet to cleaner technologies (such as their Canadian neighbors).
Representatives of the West Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) estimate that NOx emissions from all freight-related rail operations in the region are equivalent each year to releases from 350 stationary sources of pollution (including refineries and power plants). electric). Depending on the performance of the Union Pacific vehicle, the company should decide in the coming months whether it wants to replace its older locomotives with the new model. Three more hybrid locomotives are currently undergoing field tests
in the USA.
LAT 16/03/05 (New hybrid locomotive's emissions are clean as a whistle)
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-me-train16mar16,1,1315615.story
Econology note: diesel-electric locomotives have been in existence in Europe for several decades: a diesel engine drives an alternator that powers an electric motor. So is this locomotive really innovative? Especially when we know the Kitson-Still: steam locomotive diesel-years 1920