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  • #1

    Rail Power

    I'd heard this story anecdotally from a railfan friend and it recently surfaced in my social media feeds again. Emergency use of diesel locomotives to provide electrical power after a 1998 ice storm in Boucherville, Quebec:

    That Time a Canadian Town Derailed a Diesel Train and Drove It Down the Street to Provide Emergency Power
    https://gizmodo.com/that-time-a-canadian-town-derailed-a-diesel-train-and-d-1846307148
    Even in a suburb of Montreal that’s well versed in dealing with winter storms, inclement weather can still overwhelm basic services like power, an issue


    How Canadians Derailed a Train and Drove It to City Hall for Power After a Brutal Ice Storm
    https://www.thedrive.com/news/39378/how-canadians-derailed-a-train-and-drove-it-to-city-hall-for-power-after-a-brutal-ice-storm
    It tore up the roads but ultimately saved lives by providing power in a pinch.


    The second article provides links to a couple of rail forum discussions with more technical information on how to accomplish this.

    While I don't see this being viable in most locales circa 2000, it may have been a stopgap measure used in late 1997 or early 1998 - immediately after the nuclear strikes, when diesel fuel reserves were still a thing. This could result in PCs encountering a (damaged, stranded) locomotive in a very unexpected place...

    - C.
    Clayton A. Oliver • Occasional RPG Freelancer Since 1996

    Author of The Pacific Northwest, coauthor of Tara Romaneasca, creator of several other free Twilight: 2000 and Twilight: 2013 resources, and curator of an intermittent gaming blog.

    It rarely takes more than a page to recognize that you're in the presence of someone who can write, but it only takes a sentence to know you're dealing with someone who can't.
    - Josh Olson
    Tags: electricity, power
  • #2
    I see your trains and raise you....
    https://www.busaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.phpt=80923&fbclid=IwAR0rmpFO-9CvN8jWSVoO_Xg9yhxGwzy736nqUhWEtaLdbdMRTs-Gkw6y8hw

    An error has occurred! - Trove
    https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/214791794fbclid=IwAR3Mz0lUAGfqaSCpcybO5HiMJQoRQLAqhLlwOJWog39XjXiL

    404 Not Found
    https://www.bluestarline.org/hinemoa.htmlfbclid=IwAR1d2ee0FqlbJaeVFUxA4LnjNENlLmh5JYxDdPQ9KT8VkY267ZtGaO0Bnkg
    If it moves, shoot it, if not push it, if it still doesn't move, use explosives.

    Nothing happens in isolation - it's called "the butterfly effect"

    Mors ante pudorem

    Comment

    • #3
      I suspect they may be in use in many areas still in 2001 - if you have oil being produced they could easily still be used to generate power - and per the canon there is still oil being pumped and refined in many areas of the country - and easier to maintain a diesel locomotive to generate power than try to bring a power generating facility back online

      Comment

      • #4
        For the MLW M-420 that CN used in Boucherville, it was run on Notch 3 and produced 375 kilowatts of power at 60 Hz. Larger diesel-electrics like the SD40-2 can crank out around 1 megawatt when working as generators. The UP allegedly still uses their locomotives as generators fairly often for towns near their shops, but I don't know any technical details.
        The poster formerly known as The Dark

        The Vespers War - Ninety years before the Twilight War, there was the Vespers War.

        Comment

        • #5
          Past a certain point, the technical details are irrelevant for our purposes, insofar as we're playing Twilight: 2000, not Diesel Power Engineering and Frothing Railfans: 2000. This is something that, once its feasibility is known, can be reduced to a series of Mechanics/Electronics/Civil Engineering rolls at appropriate difficulty, with missions to recover appropriate technological MacGuffins from the Bad People.

          - C.
          Clayton A. Oliver • Occasional RPG Freelancer Since 1996

          Author of The Pacific Northwest, coauthor of Tara Romaneasca, creator of several other free Twilight: 2000 and Twilight: 2013 resources, and curator of an intermittent gaming blog.

          It rarely takes more than a page to recognize that you're in the presence of someone who can write, but it only takes a sentence to know you're dealing with someone who can't.
          - Josh Olson

          Comment

          • #6
            I was under the impression that knowing fuel consumption and power generated might be useful in a game about scarce resources. I stand corrected.
            The poster formerly known as The Dark

            The Vespers War - Ninety years before the Twilight War, there was the Vespers War.

            Comment

            • #7
              No, those are wholly relevant. I thought you were referencing a deeper dive into the engineering fiddly bits.

              - C.
              Clayton A. Oliver • Occasional RPG Freelancer Since 1996

              Author of The Pacific Northwest, coauthor of Tara Romaneasca, creator of several other free Twilight: 2000 and Twilight: 2013 resources, and curator of an intermittent gaming blog.

              It rarely takes more than a page to recognize that you're in the presence of someone who can write, but it only takes a sentence to know you're dealing with someone who can't.
              - Josh Olson

              Comment

              • #8
                Originally posted by Vespers War View Post
                I was under the impression that knowing fuel consumption and power generated might be useful in a game about scarce resources. I stand corrected.
                I thought it was very useful information and as an engineer myself I love discussions of important technical details - keep them coming.

                Comment

                • #9
                  I remember reading about an aircraft carrier being used to supply electrical power to a major town on the west coast. This was in the 1930's and the city's main power plant broke and the USS Lexington(CV-3) was sent and served for several weeks as the main power plant. Just think what a nuclear powered ship could do....

                  Comment

                  • #10
                    Originally posted by jimbo4795 View Post
                    I remember reading about an aircraft carrier being used to supply electrical power to a major town on the west coast. This was in the 1930's and the city's main power plant broke and the USS Lexington(CV-3) was sent and served for several weeks as the main power plant. Just think what a nuclear powered ship could do....
                    and it would be canonical to do that - think the USS Virginia and Satellite Down

                    Comment

                    • #11
                      Not train related, but I found this article that discusses a drop-in transmission replacement for HMMWVs that allows them to function as 30 kW generators in addition to being usable as an ordinary vehicle, with similar systems under development for "larger trucks" to function as 30-125 kW generators depending on application and configuration.

                      Poking around on Leonardo DRS' site, the HMMWV power generation is 30 kW at 2000 RPM and 10 kW at engine idle, both 208 Vac. The "larger trucks" would be anything using an Allison 3000 or 4000 series transmission, which would include Strykers and MRAPs.

                      Even though it's a recently introduced item, I don't think it would be outlandish for it to have been developed earlier.
                      The poster formerly known as The Dark

                      The Vespers War - Ninety years before the Twilight War, there was the Vespers War.

                      Comment

                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Vespers War View Post
                        Not train related, but I found this article that discusses a drop-in transmission replacement for HMMWVs that allows them to function as 30 kW generators in addition to being usable as an ordinary vehicle, with similar systems under development for "larger trucks" to function as 30-125 kW generators depending on application and configuration.

                        Poking around on Leonardo DRS' site, the HMMWV power generation is 30 kW at 2000 RPM and 10 kW at engine idle, both 208 Vac. The "larger trucks" would be anything using an Allison 3000 or 4000 series transmission, which would include Strykers and MRAPs.

                        Even though it's a recently introduced item, I don't think it would be outlandish for it to have been developed earlier.
                        Considering the technology has been around for decades and the idea has been in the minds of people who drive in remote locations of the world, I think it's entirely reasonable that this would have been developed much earlier.
                        I have a vague recollection of a website from the 2000s that mentioned this idea for people travelling in remote areas of outback Australia.
                        So I tend to think that these systems have been developed much earlier, just not on a commercial scale.

                        Comment

                        • #13
                          Originally posted by jimbo4795 View Post
                          I remember reading about an aircraft carrier being used to supply electrical power to a major town on the west coast. This was in the 1930's and the city's main power plant broke and the USS Lexington(CV-3) was sent and served for several weeks as the main power plant. Just think what a nuclear powered ship could do....
                          That was the USS Lexington, CV-2, she use her engines to supply power to downtown Tacoma in the 1930s due to a drought made the hydroelectric dam from working effectively. See this article on the topic from a history website.

                          Just think what a nuclear powered ship could do
                          Isn't that one of the plot points of "The Last Submarine" That the UBF wanted to use the submarine as a source of power
                          Hey, Law and Order's a team, man. He finds the bombs, I drive the car. We tried the other way, but it didn't work.

                          Comment

                          • #14
                            Originally posted by StainlessSteelCynic View Post
                            Considering the technology has been around for decades and the idea has been in the minds of people who drive in remote locations of the world, I think it's entirely reasonable that this would have been developed much earlier.
                            I have a vague recollection of a website from the 2000s that mentioned this idea for people travelling in remote areas of outback Australia.
                            So I tend to think that these systems have been developed much earlier, just not on a commercial scale.
                            I think integrating it into the transmission is the new idea. AFAIK, older systems were generally power take-offs that required hauling around equipment not needed by the new system, and sometimes required disabling the vehicle's mobility in order to use the power generation capability. Instead of the vehicle directly generating power, it would be connected to an external generator.
                            The poster formerly known as The Dark

                            The Vespers War - Ninety years before the Twilight War, there was the Vespers War.

                            Comment

                            • #15
                              Originally posted by Southernap View Post
                              Isn't that one of the plot points of "The Last Submarine" That the UBF wanted to use the submarine as a source of power
                              As well as Satellite Down, yes.
                              If it moves, shoot it, if not push it, if it still doesn't move, use explosives.

                              Nothing happens in isolation - it's called "the butterfly effect"

                              Mors ante pudorem

                              Comment

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