I was looking through some locomotive fleet replacement notes this weekend in preparation for writing an article about a design family of locomotive products. I was primarily looking for locomotive price and trade-in allowance notes, but I came across a few fuel price notes, so I am sharing the information here for your history files.

They were using estimates of $1 a gallon railroad diesel fuel cost in ............... 1981.

I found an optional set of estimates for the possibility of it reaching $1.10 a gallon.

PC

We were supposed to have flying cars, too... in what year?

Howard P.

The methods for evaluating investment decisions are very useful to look at historically, to understand the context of past decisions. There is much in this topic that would be of interest to a broader audience interested in business and economic history.

Looking at EIA and other charts, it is fascinating how "flat" the chart of diesel fuel price is, from 1980 to about 1998. In 1998 it briefly dived back below $1 a gallon then took off on a higher yearly increase trajectory.

I have been collecting information on the history of locomotive pricing by the various builders and perhaps the fuel cost at the time of model introduction should be part of that data.

PC

Preston,

I have a few technical papers presented by EMD to the ASME in the 1970s regarding fuel conservation and design that might be helpful to your research. If you are interested, please send me a PM with the best way to send them to you.

I routinely paid 99 cents a gallon for truck #2 diesel in West Memphis, Arkansas well into the early 2000s. Made it cost-effective to commute from Memphis to New York, and then from Memphis to the Atlanta area.

And it went up, I think, because the state of Arkansas saw it was leaving tax money on the table, and raised its rates to at least parity with Tennessee.

States don't much care for OTR truckers passing through, but love it when they leave some of their money behind.

I'd have thought by now that the 'competition' between diesel and #2 home heating oil would have eased as oil-fired heating became progressively replaced over the past two decades or so. I have to conclude that its price is being artificially inflated "because they can"

Most of the refineries are geared towards gasoline down through diesel in the fractionating tower as much as possible. Though no two crude oils crack same, you’re looking on average at about 40% gasoline and 20% diesel and heating oils from an averaged barrel with the focus on diesel in that section of the tower. I would think that with less heating oil and more diesel, both in sales and production explains the pricing. Supply and demand.

I find it interesting that prices were pretty stable until the 2,000s when it started to take off.

Fractionation does not do any of what you describe.
https://pro-quip.com/images/proquip/PDF ... 0Guide.pdf

Look at the flow chart on page 5 for processses and products.

I purposefully did not describe the entire process, I kept it super duper simple. On your chart, the “crude distilling unit” is the fractionating tower. It’s the first step - without that you have nothing but crude oil. It provides the gas, fuel, lubricating, heavy fuel oil and asphalt feed stocks, in that order from the tower top to the bottom. The tower section that distills out JP, kero, diesel and heating oil feed stock - the straight run light gas oil - is the part of the tower that that concerns this discussion. The feed stocks from the tower are further processed into the final products which I did not think it useful to mention. It’s either that or I learned nothing in 25 years of working with the petroleum refiners.

Now we’ve gotten far off the subject….

This is some info from the AAR.

https://www.aar.org/wp-content/uploads/ ... Sample.pdf

https://www.aar.org/wp-content/uploads/ ... ndexes.pdf

From the Railroad Facts pamphlets diesel fuel prices: 1977, 36.38 cents; 78, 37.90; 79, 57.58; 80, 83.00; 81, 100.22; 82, 95.43; 83, 82.73; 84, 82.59; 85, 77.75 from the 1986 issue.

From the 1994 pamphlet: 1984, 82.57; 85, 78.34; 86, 49.23; 87, 53.81; 88, 49.15; 89, 56.27; 90, 69.22; 91, 67.24; 92, 63.29; 93, 63.05.

Tom Hamilton

To the discussion about the jump in diesel fuel prices, the biggest jump in recent times was when the switch was made to low Sulphur, then ultra low Sulphur diesel. Both of which require extra refining, and therefore subsequent price increases on top of crude prices.

Here's your answer:

https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/politic ... 229-80290/