PDA

View Full Version : Disneyland Railroad testing Bio-Diesel



smd4
01-18-2007, 06:51 AM
DRR conductor "Marky" reports over on Burnsland that the railroad is testing the use of Bio-diesel in one of its engines. Thought folks here would find it of interest:

For those of you who love the smell of cooking oil the Disneyland Railroad might have that particular smell. Today marks the first day that a steam train was powered by bio-diesel in the entire nation. The E.P Ripley had the smell of cooking oil and if you were in the back of the train it smelled like fries. Today it was in the testing phase but if it works out then we might switch to the environmental friendly oil. If we do use it then it might push more people off of the train simply because they are hungry. Keep your nose in the air when your on the line next time you might smell a different smell.

stan4d_steph
01-18-2007, 06:56 AM
Very cool! Thanks for the information. I saw a news story about how popular bio-diesel has been with truckers, who say that it gives them better fuel economy than regular diesel.

smd4
01-18-2007, 07:08 AM
Very cool! Thanks for the information. I saw a news story about how popular bio-diesel has been with truckers, who say that it gives them better fuel economy than regular diesel.Well, if I recall my statistics correctly (don't have my book in front of me), the DRR trains use about 12 gallons of fuel/hour. That means their mileage is about 1 mile/2 gallons (yep--they use two gallons of fuel to go a mile!). So, any mileage increase should help!

hbquikcomjamesl
01-18-2007, 07:49 AM
Yes, 2 gallons per mile. But pulling an average of what, 100 or more passengers per train? How many of us rarely have any passengers at all in our automobiles?

Actually, I'm surprised that it hadn't been tried before. A steam locomotive can, with appropriate modifications to the firebox, burn any solid fuel from coal to (with a spark arrester -- that's what the "diamond stacks" on woodburners were for) cordwood, to cow chips, and any kind of oil from bunker-c to diesel to used fry-oil.

And didn't I read somewhere that WDW uses a fair amount of used fry-oil in its buses?

smd4
01-18-2007, 08:08 AM
Yes, 2 gallons per mile. But pulling an average of what, 100 or more passengers per train? More like 300 people per train.

But I wasn't suggesting that the trains weren't fuel efficient for what they do; I was suggesting that with each train burning maybe 200 gallons of diesel in a typical day, then the cost of running them might come down a bit if the bio-diesel proved more fuel efficient.

hbquikcomjamesl
01-18-2007, 08:20 AM
Even if it isn't more efficient, it manages to accomplish a few constructive things:

1. It saves petroleum, which is certainly a non-renewable resource
2. It disposes of a waste product in a constructive manner
3. It probably burns cleaner. Although Disney's steam locomotives (and the Mark Twain, for that matter) appear to burn pretty clean in general -- presumably the result of constant use and very experienced firemen in the cabs. You don't know soot until you've seen a (volunteer-run) Sacramento Southern weekend excursion train, especially in the early morning: apparently, Disney could teach some of those volunteers something about firing a steam locomotive!

Oh, and "smd4," I wasn't accusing you of anything; it's just that throwing out "2 gallons per mile" without a context tends to invite apples-to-oranges comparisons. And my "100 or more" guess was for an average load of much less than full capacity; I'm delighted to hear that it's an overly-conservative estimate.

darph nader
01-18-2007, 01:26 PM
Well they have plenty of fryers to get their supply. Plus they could get a cheap supply from every resturant within a 1 mile radius. btw,2 mpg isn't 'too' bad. I heard a Boeing 747 gets 75' to the gallon.

rokketride
01-18-2007, 02:49 PM
I think he said 2 gallons per mile, that would be 1/2 mpg

newhdplayer
01-18-2007, 03:04 PM
I think we need to eat more fries from the fry cart to make sure the engine has enough fuel!