Quote:
Originally Posted by Big Dave
I used to work for CSX and have an (expired) engineer's card. The numbers are completely valid, for reasons everyone has touched on: engines run at optimum bsfc, surprisingly low aero resistance, gentle grades (rarely over 2%), extremely low rolling resistance, etc
A train usually coasts most of the distance of a leg. I ran a westbound train out of Washington, Indiana. Fifteen miles west, I topped the "ruling grade" at 30 MPH and coasted all the way to Cone Yard in East St. Louis where I had to get on the brakes. All the way across Illinois coasting. Is that a hypermiler's dream or what? I'd occasionally have to rev up the engines to compress air to keep the air brakes from dragging.
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that is awesome.
I learned this with trucking..the sense of coasting, and entire hills taken up by the previous..40 tons of course.
in airplanes your thinking chunks of the world crossed on a glideslope.
I do not get the point across about lightweight and ecomod being evil. It is not the answer for ecomod and real goals. My opinion does not go over well here in many cases.
I learned some engines respond as heavier, they hang on in hills, they have a longer glide, they like weight. All diesels feel that way after years of a four banger gas...until the 3 main boxer...that is just a simple genius in its own righteousness.
