Fuel economy

[Pete Masterson]

For many decades, railroads with electric locomotives have done this
with "dynamic braking" on down hill grades. One transcontinental
carrier, the CMSTP&P, had sections across the Rocky mountains that
recovered a substantial amount of the energy used going up hill by
the generating output of the locomotives going down hill. However,
the particular carrier, absorbed years ago in mergers, was not
particularly successful and their electrified system was dismantled
due to the aging and dated technology used. I believe that
substantial portions of their track (that paralleled competing lines
that they were merged with) has been pulled up.

Converting the power generated by the magnetic retarder into
batteries would be an interesting engineering challenge. The amount
of current made can be quite significant for short periods of time --
handling it might prove difficult (expensive). Again, looking at
diesel-electric locomotives, most of them convert their dynamic
braking power into heat using massive "toaster grids." There have
been some experimental systems that capture the power into (massive)
battery banks making truly hybrid locomotives ... but this isn't a
mainstream technology yet.

Pete Masterson
'95 Blue Bird Wanderlodge WBDA 42
aeonix1@...
On the road at Lockhart Texas



On Nov 9, 2007, at 5:16 PM, willwander08 wrote:

> Interesting article regarding the potential for hybrid Class 8.
>
> I am new to the world of Wanderlodge and RVs in general. We just
> purchased a 1983 FC
> 35.
>
> Our Bird is equipped with the four position magnetic transmission
> retarder. A couple days
> ago I was wondering if there would be a way to refit it an direct
> some to that energy to a
> battery bank. I am no engineer. I wonder if anybody else looked
> into this?