"Coal-guzzling locomotives"?!?!
The ignorance of the general media about anything railroad never ceases to amaze me. I guess the most neutral thing you could say about the project is that at least NS is trying different things to see what works.
Obviously only applicable for yard service. The major problem with it is availability. The article didn't say exactly how long it is good for on a charge, but assuming an 8 hour shift, then it wouldn't be available again until two hours into the next trick, or the first crew using it quits after six hours to allow recharging for the next one (goes against both NS' and CSX's stated policies against early quits for yard crews). Either way you're not going to get an overtime job out of it. They will need more of them to cover a yard, so it's more capital intensive than having D-E switchers or gensets that just carry-over from one shift to the next. It would certainly be greener if the recharging were done by some combination of solar and wind generation, with supplemental power coming off the grid.
If memory serves me, weren't there other attempts at battery powered locomotives, like in the era of the Baker electric automobile?
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