Dan_Bower%RPI-MTS.Mailnet@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA (09/03/85)
Re: TGV trains. For any given limit of power consumption, there is a trade off between acceleration (starting and hill climbing) and top speed. TGV cars are geared high, but are rather gutless starting out. (PCC cars are just the opposite.) They reason the French get away with 3% grades is that they are short enough to deal with as momentum grades. Starting into a 1 km 3% grade at 250 kph, you'd still be going like hell even if you coasted to the top. Anyhow, Dave (DB01@CMU...) is right about needing an entirely new right of way west of Harrisburg. Oh, the land could be bought and it could be built, but the cost would be enourmous. Just the slope easements would fantastic going up out of Altoona. However, you'd have to leave the existing line intact for freight. Conrail let themselves get chased out of the NEC (more of less) because they had alternate lines to take up the slack. West of Harrisburg, there's just no place else for the coal to go. Building a low grade, straight railroad through mountains is very expensive. You dig lots of tunnels, build lots of bridges, and move a heck of a lot of earth. (Anyone remember the South Penn?) Even with megabucks, it would be hard to keep the ruling grade low enough to run TGV service for a reasonable cost ( in electricity).