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Old 04-28-2009, 06:18 PM   #35 (permalink)
theunchosen
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Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Cookeville, TN
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It takes very little fuel to get coal to its destination. Coal plants are always located almost side-by-side to rail. High-load freight can move an entire 240 car load one mile on just 6 gallons.

Compared to a diesel tanker that gets 20 miles per gallon on a downhill only run but can only carry much less than one car. But to be nice I'll say he can carry a full train car(its about twice more than he can carry) 20/240. . ..083 mpg. . .12 gallons per mile to transport 240 tankers of gasoline compared to 6 gallons to transport 240 cars of coal. And I was being very nice(20 mpg? train car has volumetric capacity of 3,700 F^3 while trucks have a max of 3100 f^3 in rectangular format and oil tankers always have the cylindrical form.)
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