[ARC5] OT: DY-17? Hmph!

[Kenneth G. Gordon]

On 19 Dec 2012 at 9:12, Richard Knoppow wrote:

> things when working.  There were very good reasons that they 
> were supplanted by diesel-electric but diesels just don't 
> have the magic.

Actually, that is not quite totally true: in at least two countries that I know of, 
India being one, and the other some place in Africa, after doing a very, very 
thorough cost/benefit analysis, it was determined that steam was still more 
efficient, overall, than diesel-electrics. As I remember it, the primary 
determining cost was the cost of fuel, coupled with the requirement to make 
major changes in the entire infrastructure.

Here is another story that you may find of interest: two long sections of the 
old Milwaukee Road had been totally electrified early in the 20th century. 
These lines were noted for their extreme overall efficiency.

Among other things, trains going DOWN one side of the Rocky Mountains 
would, by regenerative braking, essentially pull another train UP the other 
side.

They operated at 3000 VDC.

This entire stretch of electrified railway was eventually done away with when 
some pencil-necked geeks in the accounting department decided to make 
everything "standard" and go completely to diesel-electric locomotives.

So, in order to accomplish this dirty trick, in 1973, just when the Oil Crisis hit, 
and costs for fuel skyrocketed, ALL the maintenance costs of ALL the entire 
line was written off against ONLY the electrified portions so that they could 
then show the share-holders and upper-management how "in-efficient" it was 
and could do away with it.

A couple of the fellows who worked on the line and who were hams told me 
this.

There is a section in the wikipedia article on the Milwaukee Road that details 
this, under De-Electrification, and says that IFF the Milwaukee Road had 
STAYED electrified, it would be still in existence today since even the OLD 
electric locos operated at half the cost of the diesel-electrics. As it is, the line 
went bankrupt for the last time in 1986.

Ken W7EKB