xkcd

8839 readers

36 users here now

A community for a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

1103

xkcd #2948: Electric vs Gas (xkcd.com)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

733 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Alt text:

An idling gas engine may be annoyingly loud, but that's the price you pay for having WAY less torque available at a standstill.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 300 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (54 children)

The motors have never been the problem, it's always been the battery. See train engines, they are a diesel generator with electric motors.

This is where history pisses me off. We should have been headlong into battery research after the oil embargoes. Could have been 40 years faster.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I hope you are not talking about battery locomotives.

With overhead wires the train has a practically unlimited battery capacity.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 5 months ago

There are use cases for battery trains. In remote, mountainous locations where the cost for electrifying a track is very high it is not uncommon to use electric trains with batteries. Here in Germany we have several regions where diesel trains have been replaced by them.

load more comments (52 replies)