Quote:
Originally Posted by jamesqf
If instead of wasting that electricity in producing heat, it was stored in batteries, high-speed flywheels, or even sent back into the grid via overhead electric wires, the locomotive would be a hybrid. But it isn't, so it's not, no more than dissapating the energy as heat in brake linings would make them friction hybrids. The energy's not reused, it's gone. Simple, really: all you have to do is think about it :-)
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First, let me say that I never said a locomotive was a hybrid - in fact it is pretty clear it is not, because it has only one source of power - the diesel engine. However, the definition of a hybrid does not include the requirement that it re-capture any energy. Therefore your particular argument is fallacious.
What I think you are
trying to say (and did say in a previous post) is that if it did use any of those means (flywheel, batteries, grid) then it would have two sources of power and be a hybrid. I agree with that. The Prius is a hybrid because it has two power sources: the gas engine and the batteries, not because it has regenerative braking.
Your position that a locomotive is not a hybrid is correct, but the arguments you use to support that conclusion are sometimes poor ("regenerative braking makes a hybrid", and "a locomotive is a transmission").