Steam Locomotives, will they ever make a comeback?

A different thread has drifted to where it is discussing the history of trains. This has me thinking that with the astronomical cost of diesel fuel these days, will there come a time (or perhaps is now the time) when it will make economical sense for coal powered steam locomotives to stage a comeback?

No. The biggest problem was they were machines that while incredibly powerful, beat themselves to death doing their job. You don't have those problems with electric and or diesel/electric.

With a steam engine, you have unlimited power from the same size of engine, just add more pressure If the old engines beat themselves to death, could that be more caused by the lack of precision bearings ? Alot of the old stuff was a poured babbit (lead) bearings. With todays modern bearings,could they make a comeback ? Also, steam is unlike an internal combustion engine, you have as much torque from any rpm.

No ! federal regulations of steam boilers would make it prohibitive.

Read this paper if you can download it. This will answer all your questions.

http://5at.co.uk/uploads/Articles%20and%20papers/Economic_results_of_diesel_electric_motive.pdf

It is a religion that diesels replaced steam because they were so much cheaper to run. This is not the case, but; I'll tell you from being a veteran of many battles about this, that no matter what hard evidence is brought up. Somebody will say, but what about this. Statements based on opinion and no facts will come to fore. I began my railroad career on steam. Not on a tourist railroad, but; on the Southern. I've worked on them, run them, fired and studied them. It dosen't matter, if you question the religion, then you don't know what you are talking about.

The Safety Brigade would hobble the boiler design sooooooooo horribly that it would be able to compete with nukie reactors. Unlimited potential.....waaaay cool, but I'm afraid it's over. I think you can go to the Denver to Cheyenne high speed run every fall on 'the monster'. That could be better than......oops, U Fill in the blanks. In case you haven't looked over how efficient diesel/electric is, check out the locomotive sites, AND read up on what Cat and the BIG DAWGS are doing with earth moving equipment. Don't stare at your feet all day, look up!!!!! There is a great BIG world all around you, and things move quickly if you are standing still.

Remember what kids say to old folks? If you aren't livin' on the EDGE, then YOU are takin' up too much space! ........how true!!!!

Yesterday is a memory, tomorrow is a new adventure!

Hey, Carnival Cruises is actively seeking navigational capable folks who can actually plot a course, despite 20 million dollars of nav aids!
Several "Simpson Family Member"s have left the Nukie Plant en-route to the Med!!!!

Here is another one that was written just two years ago and it compares steam operation and diesel operation at todays costs. This has some good information in it as well.

http://www.internationalsteam.co.uk/trains/newsteam/modern50.htm

Even if it's a good idea. You can forget it. The green lobby will beat it
to death with a sea weed whip.

tsb wrote:Even if it's a good idea. You can forget it. The green lobby will beat it
to death with a sea weed whip.

You are probably right about that. Say the word, "coal," and watch the environmentalist extremists go nuts.

It is such a great idea but I agree that it will never happen. Although a lot of things could change when the price of oil goes beyond anyone's reach , if it does. I think most all of the scrap yards scrapped their steam fleets a long time ago though. While the steam trains did put up with a lot of wear and tear I would say compared to today they could handle those beating better than if we built a steam train with all our modern ways. Take a tractor for example most older tractors are still a lot tougher than the new stuff , same with cars and so on. I think it would be amazing to see these back in action but for now I think we are stuck with just the novelty steamers left.

You guys will love this though if you havnt seen it already.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RAYwEAL ... ata_player

Search "Top Gear Steam Train" on YouTube best race ever!

i asked this question last summer when oil went threw the roof . i'm still waiting .

mason coal burner wrote:i asked this question last summer when oil went threw the roof . i'm still waiting .

If the railroads switched back to coal burning steam this minute they would save almost 12 BILLION dollars a year in fuel costs alone. Read the stuff I posted above, it will explain a lot to you. Brown's report is heavy reading, but; he leaves no stone unturned in his examination of the true economics of steam compared to diesel costs. Speaking of engines, I have to go to work and run some of them later.

they say when you enjoy your jobs its not work . sounds like you enjoy your job Will

MCB, I have had the pleasure to operate quite a few steam cars, trucks, tractors & even what we called thermos engines(basically a loco that got steam from the boiler house rather than on board) one of the big drawbacks I knew of was maint. they were built so heavy to withstand the torque that they were a lubrication nightmare. With the modern tech we have today I think they could refine & improve steam engines & maybe make a go of it, I would try one in trucks first, more than enough power & room for a good size engine & whatever the choice of fuel.
That being said GE has a new Evolution Series diesel-electric engine that is billed as a fuel saver & they make a ton of them right here in Erie but most are all being bought overseas. For some reason the U.S. doesn't seem to want to modernize. Another thing I question is diesel price, most of my life diesel was always cheaper than gas & now it's reversed.

They aren't coming back, look at the infrastructure you would need to support them.