[redneck]

This is what I was talking about.

The ACE 3000

The Ultimate Steam Page

Big Dave

They were about 9-10% thermally efficient. Diesel electrics are routinely 30-35% efficient over the duty cycle.

Quote;

The article in Trains outlined the basic concept for the engine to be known as the ACE 3000. It was intended to be a coal-burning, steam locomotive which would somehow be made compatible with the modern railroad operating environment. Judging that the EMD GP-40 diesel-electric of 3000 crankshaft horsepower was pretty much the average railway locomotive, the ACE team set out to design a steamer that could effectively compete against it. The ACE 3000 was to be capable of 3000 (nominal) draw bar horsepower (4000 hp peak), an efficient operating speed range of 15 to 70 MPH, have computer-controlled firing, and a typical (not peak) thermal efficiency of 15%. While the ACE team acknowledged that this efficiency was much less than a modern diesel-electric locomotive (which had an efficiency of about 30%), they knew that the immense cost difference in coal and diesel oil would allow a less-efficient coal burning locomotive to be much more economical to fuel than a very efficient oil burning diesel locomotive.

The ACE team was also investigating reciprocating electric steam locomotives, steam turbine electric locomotives (mentioned in the patent), fluidized bed combustion (which can cleanly burn high sulfur coal), and coal-fired gas turbine electric locomotives. While ACE was the best-known effort of the early 1980's to develop a new coal-fired locomotive, several other companies were also hard at work. See the 21st Century page for information on these projects.

After remaining dormant for several years, in 1985 ACE came into the spotlight again as oil prices resumed their climb. In a spectacular demonstration of steam showmanship, Rowland brought out his 4-8-4 no. 614 for testing in actual revenue service on the now-CSX Railway in the mountains of West Virginia. The Foster-Wheeler boiler company was brought on board (replacing Babcock & Wilcox) to assist with testing and boiler design. In January 1985, 614 operated under some of the most grueling conditions imaginable (temperatures down to 20 degrees F below zero) in an attempt to provide test data on steam locomotive performance to be used by the ACE design team.


An extensive array of sensors were installed on the 614 by engineers from Foster Wheeler and tied-in to recorders located in a test car behind the engine and tenders. The sensors measured boiler temperatures, smokebox gas composition, steam temperatures, cylinder pressures, and rod and frame stresses. These sensors would allow real-time measurements to be made on a working steam locomotive under realistic conditions. Unfortunately, due to the short time allowed for preparation of the locomotive and equipment, and because of the incredibly harsh weather conditions, data gathering was marginally successful. While very little of this data was ever published, one result was revealed by Roland in the 1985 video "Chesapeake & Ohio 614T: The March to Hinton". The early testing confirmed the relatively low thermal efficiency of a conventional steam locomotive like the 614 at about 6%. Amazingly, despite the vast thermal efficiency gap between the 614 and modern diesel-electrics, 614's computed fuel costs were LESS than those of the newest EMD diesels hauling the same trains over the same tracks under the same conditions, due to the extreme price difference in coal and diesel fuel. As Roland put it, if a 6% efficient steamer could haul freight at a lower fuel cost than a state-of-the-art diesel, imagine what an 18% efficient steamer (i.e.- the ACE 3000) could do.


Unfortunately, the Chessie was put off by this shift in ACE's corporate design philosophy, and a sharp drop in the price of diesel fuel greatly reduced their interest in converting to coal fuel...

So, it is possible...

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