Does the aerodynamics of the lead locomotive/car of a train have any effect on fuel economy or performance? I’ve been fascinated by trains and one of the things that has always bothered me has been the utter lack of aerodynamics in most locomotives and power cars. The AEM-7 is a particularly odd offender.
My question is, does aerodynamics matter for trains?
On light commuter and high speed passenger trains, yes, the aerodynamics make a difference, not so much as a fuel saving device, but as a traction device.
The Ice and the TVG use the aerodynamics the same way a race car uses spoilers and air dams, to provide a downward force to improve traction.
Keep in mind a Dash 9 weighs in at 440,000. lbs, it’s a brick on wheels, and once it is moving at track speed its mass and inertia will overcome almost any resistance the air will offer.
Most Class 1 roads max out freight train speed under 70 mph, so any aerodynamic design will offer little in fuel savings…now if they ran at 120+mph, then it might matter.
This was discussed here a month or so ago… see:
The short and simple answer is “yes”. Check out any of the tons of printed mateirals on streamlining and stream styling both in Trains and in many books. Not only was it for visual appeal but also the aerodynamics. Same goes for highway trucks. Yes, in some services it really doesn’t matter, but wind drag can be a problem, even stack trains are prone to it. But check out what’s been written.
First time reader and poster… here is an article I came by last week while doing research for a new website and blog I am working on… using a dummy box shaped like a wedge to reduce drag. Like trucking, fuel is 20% of the total cost of a rail operation. That’s a huge expense which needs reducing.
https://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2010/12/08/power-one-union-pacific
Russ
IntermodalCarrier-dot-com
That wedge might help if the wind came exactly in front of the moving train. With double stack trains there is too much open space between containers from car to car (or platform) and since the wind is usually coming at the train from an angle each space tends to have the effect of a wall.
Autorack trains used to be hard pullers when they were loaded open cars. Now with enclosed side and ends they take less HP to achieve running speed. A general freight train with smooth side cars rather than “Outside braced” will have less wind residence.
To give an example of what I mean, I once had an mty grain train between Glenwood, MN and Enderlin, ND powered by two GP38-2’s with 115 covered hoppers, all of which had outside bracing. The wind was blowing out of the west 35-45 mph. Between Nashua and Hankinson the track runs due east and west and is pretty level. We were able to run about 25-30 mph. At Hankinson the railroad heads northwest and that put the wind coming from an angle against every one of those multiple steel channels on the side of every car. That reduced our speed on the level to about 15-18 mph. There were a couple of places where we got the whole train behind a shelter belt and the speed went right back up to 25. To go back further empty grain box car trains with open doors were even harder to pull. It took the carriers far too long to learn the lesson of closing doors.
First of All, Russ, [#welcome] Hope you enjoy your visits here.
The wedge looks like a pretty good idea, similar to the wedge shape of skirting that some motor carriers are using under their van trailers as a nood to aerodynamics and ultimately, fuel savings.
The idea wedge idea looks like an interesting solution to a problem that has faced the trucker for a long time how do you make that 13’6" box over the top of the cab aerodynamic. Plenty of ideas have been tried, some lasted, some went away pretty quickly. My beef with the Wedge comes down to logistics. I live out on the BNSF Southern Transcon. I couldn’'t guess the count through here; some days they seem to be serveral trains East and West every hour, some days about one an hour. What it amounts to is a heck of a lot of trains. To make the wedge system work would take one on each Stacker and you would have to have a ready suppl of them at each location that loads and unloads them. The simple task of storing would be a real issue, and that precludes keeping them repaired and serviceable. I can’t begin to guess the issues that they would create operationally. And I am not sure how effective they would be with the variety of track speeds that they would operate in in the real world?
Any way that’s my take on the “Wedge” for Stackers.
Wow, I didn’t even think of the space between the cards esp. on deep well double-stack cars. So much involved here.
Still, I don’t understand why the AEM-7 is so un-aerodynamic. It sure seems like it could use some.