On Jun 4, 5:46*pm, "RJ" wrote:

"We can move one ton of freight 486 miles
on ONE GALLON of fuel........."

I'm sure it's not an outright lie,
so how could they get these numbers ?

Train has 100 cars, each with 100 tons of cargo. Starts at
Alphaville, travels 486 miles to Bravotown, burns 10000 gallons of
diesel. Result is 486 ton-miles/gallon.

3000-5000 gallon tanks are (were?) pretty standard on big (3000+ hp)
GM & GE diesels. 2-3 units on the headend (depending on geography),
top up at each end, seems reasonable at a glance.

Steel wheel on steel rail is incredibly more efficient than rubber on
asphalt. And they pay for their own roadway maintenance vs taxpayers
paying for highway maintenance.


Maybe cars of the future should run on rails ??

Well maybe if we all had our own track construction crews to lay rails
to grandma's house.

Red
(third generation railroader)