Is "Steam Power" the future of railroading?

[WoundedBear]

Here's an interesting read I stumbled across. Makes one think.......

http://www.ecolo.org/documents/documents_in_english/NuclearForRail.doc

Sid

[WoundedBear]

Found a few really "out there" designs as well.

http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc126/paul_heyduck/IDW49finalbyinsubstantial-2.jpg

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h155/sogbad/Train.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2275/1818481353_c488c12959_o.jpg

http://www.milecastle.com/HOLME_SITE/2D/IDW-49-DHolme.jpg



Plus some just plain cool sites.

http://www.crabfu.com/steamtoys/diy_steampunk/

http://www.crabfu.com/steamtoys/

Enjoy

Sid

[Conrail Quality]

With nuclear power having the stigma that it currently does, a nuclear-powered locomotive is unlikely. Especially interesting is this line:

"The spent fuel pellets would go to the same locations to which nuclear power stations send their spent fuel rods."

So where, precisely? Currently, spent fuel from power plants gets stored... at the power plants, all of which barely have enough space to store their own waste, let alone the waste of thousands of nuclear locomotives. Until we get that nuclear storage site set up at Yucca Mountain (politics will certainly interfere with that), the waste issue alone will prevent this idea for getting past the experimental stage, if that.

Timothy

[Dr EMD]

Techwise it may work.

But would the general public (at least here in North America) accept a nuclear reactor that can be moved and going thur your town.

A sea going ship is away from the general population and controlled/guarded by the national Navy. A power plant is guarded by the power company's security forces. In the post 9/11 world, who will accept the liability?

[Woody Elmore]

A friend who is a nuclear engineer and is working on the new reactor to serve the Cherokee, NC area tells me that a lot of nuclear plants have "rent a cop" security. Even the Pentagon has security from a private company. How much security do you get from someone paid the minimum wage to sit in a booth and raise and lower a gate?

Maybe Americans should look to France to see what they do with their nuclear waste. They have 22 nuclear reactors supplying abundant power for the country.

[SteamGene]

Woody,
Every military installation I've been on in the last few years has "rent a cops" at the gate.  No longer a sharp looking MP/AP, but some guy who's apparently been told to tell me when my ID card expires.     There are a few retired military.  But most are not.
Gene

[RAM]

Unless it has changed in the last few years, most bases are open and you can just drive right on in.

[SteamGene]

It changed late morning/early afternoon 11 Sep 2001.  It also varied from post to post, depending on several aspects.  Some only authorized personnel were allowed on without a reason.  Others were quite open.  None are open now.  Even with a DoD decal on our cars my wife and I have to stop and show our ID card. 
Gene

[CHUG]

Nuclear train engines wont fly because bad accidents could spill nuclear molecules and make katrina and exon valdez look like baby barf. On security the private companies are the best way to go because they test all there guards for intelligence and alcohol and drugs and backgrounds. Any retired military guys that want to work for the company have to get tested to so you dont end up alot of them that are dumb or drunk or slackers on government cheese. We have a saying milatary retired an edsel re-tired.

[WoundedBear]

Nuclear train engines wont fly because bad accidents could spill nuclear molecules and make katrina and exon valdez look like baby barf. On security the private companies are the best way to go because they test all there guards for intelligence and alcohol and drugs and backgrounds. Any retired military guys that want to work for the company have to get tested to so you dont end up alot of them that are dumb or drunk or slackers on government cheese. We have a saying milatary retired an edsel re-tired.

I'm not even sure what to think of this post.......other than the fact I guarantee that we won't have to worry about you being in charge, or running the train. You could be the poster boy for pre-employment screening....lmfao.

Sid

[Woody Elmore]

"spilling nuclear particles" isn't the problem but vandalism to a plant, causing a serious reactor meltdown, is a significant threat.

Once, in the late seventies, one of the power companys that ran a reactor in the Oswego, NY area, had a strike. Some strikers vandalized gauges and instruments when they left their shift. These are guys who lived in the area, so it shows you the intelligence level.

The son of a good friend was offered a security job with Wackenfuss (I believe that's how they spell it.) His job? Guarding people who were arrested and detained by INS at Kennedy Airport. No gun, little training and outnumbered 10 to 1.

[Dusten Barefoot]

I hope an atomic steam locomotive is not made! That is a fat boy on wheels. As much as I love steam power, that is not. Now they could hook up a overhead wire system like the eruo train I saw. It was a steam engine with an electric fire box to boil the steam.
Just my thoughts.
Dusten

[CHUG]

Spilling nuclear molecules and critical mass from a train engine is a problem you see. rumor had it the military is working on a nuclear jet engine and to test the problem they crashed a C5 with nuclear engines into a field near the morge at dover delaware air base a couple years ago and the field was tested and found a lot a nuclear molecules after the crash. theres also talk around the hunting lodges there about freak animals now around the dover air base like hairless foxs and geese born without no heads and feathers and so forth. typical military stunt of gomer pyles from bozo military schools testing there concoctions without telling nobody or real scientists until its to late and people are poisoned and made freaks and so forth. Private company security can prevent this you see.

[RAM]

The problem with rumors is that most of them are not true.   

[grumpy]

Wounded Bear.
Do you think you could close the lid and fasten it shut.
Anamous.