02-22-2018, 11:03 PM
I believe the tanks in the Toyota Mirai (fuel cell vehicle) are made of carbon fibre, so they might actually be lighter than the equivalent steel gas tank for the same volume.
You're for sure right that a train powered from OCS (or third rail or some other means) is always going to be the lightest. Every other option needs to have at least the same "guts" as a conventional electric train (motors + control equipment), plus a bunch of other "stuff". In the case of a conventional Diesel-Electric loco, it's the generator, engine and fuel. In the case of a hydrogen fuel cell powered train, it'd be the fuel cells themselves as well as the tanks and the fuel as the adder. Which probably isn't as heavy as the adder in a Diesel-Electric engine, but would lie somewhere in between.
You're for sure right that a train powered from OCS (or third rail or some other means) is always going to be the lightest. Every other option needs to have at least the same "guts" as a conventional electric train (motors + control equipment), plus a bunch of other "stuff". In the case of a conventional Diesel-Electric loco, it's the generator, engine and fuel. In the case of a hydrogen fuel cell powered train, it'd be the fuel cells themselves as well as the tanks and the fuel as the adder. Which probably isn't as heavy as the adder in a Diesel-Electric engine, but would lie somewhere in between.