Trains on Trial. A BBC radio programme

[spudfan]

BBC Audio | Rare Earth | Trains on Trial

This is a programme from the BBC Radio 4 series Rare Earth. Do not know if the link will work but if not you will find it on the BBC site. The BBC Player does not work here but BBC Sounds does.

It's 200 years since the first passenger rail journey saw George Stephenson’s Locomotion No.1 travel 26 miles between Shildon, Darlington and Stockton. Environmentalists love trains - making a journey by rail can be up to 80% greener than doing it by car - and there are exciting new inventions hoping to make train travel even greener. But can we pin part of the blame for global warming on the invention of the railways in the first place?. 

[Mayner]

On 4/4/2026 at 3:39 AM, spudfan said:

BBC Audio | Rare Earth | Trains on Trial

But can we pin part of the blame for global warming on the invention of the railways in the first place?. 

Back in the day I used to travel great distances by air and road to take pictures of large diesel locomotives hauling unit coal trains through mountain ranges in the United States and New Zealand not exactly green from any perspective but great fun while it lasted.

Interestingly long rakes of stored Coal and Oil Tank Cars and diesel locomotives were a common sight when we visited North Dakota and Colorado in 2016 the United States had begun to shift from foscil fuels to renewables during the Obama presidency.

 

[Irishswissernie]

1 hour ago, Mayner said:

nterestingly long rakes of stored Coal and Oil Tank Cars and diesel locomotives were a common sight when we visited North Dakota and Colorado in 2016 the United States

I enjoy watching this Webcam on You Tube of the newish short line at West Bottoms in Kansas City which receives freight cars 3 days a week off the Union Paciic. On the main line at all times of the day and night there are long trains of mixed freight but also a fair number of Unit Coal Trains which can be 240 cars long powered by  7 locomotives stationed front middle and rear.  It doesn't appear that the USA have moved anywhere near reducing coal and oil consumption these days.

 

Edited April 6 by Irishswissernie

[Mayner]

13 hours ago, Irishswissernie said:

I enjoy watching this Webcam on You Tube of the newish short line at West Bottoms in Kansas City which receives freight cars 3 days a week off the Union Paciic. On the main line at all times of the day and night there are long trains of mixed freight but also a fair number of Unit Coal Trains which can be 240 cars long powered by  7 locomotives stationed front middle and rear.  It doesn't appear that the USA have moved anywhere near reducing coal and oil consumption these days.

 

Taken the opposite direction since we visited in 2016 when shortlines in North Dakota, Minnesota were storing literally miles of oil tank cars and many of the sidings (crossing loops) on the UP (Rio Grande) west from Denver to Salt Lake City were used to store long trains (100+) of empty coal cars. The loco yard at Green River a major Division Point between Denver and Salt Lake City was literally chock full of sidelined modern high power freight locos.

When we North Dakota & Minnesota visited in 2024 & 2025 there were literally no stored tank cars to be seen, interestingly ethanol distilled from grain had become a significant traffic with BNSF unit trains operating over the Red River Valley and Western (one of the local shortlines) to a local refineries/distilleries. Interestingly the 100+ car unit trains operated over the shortline behind BNSF power crewed by RRVW staff. The refinery on a Canadian Pacific (CP) main line was served directly by the CP and by the RRVW/BNSF by running powers over the CP line.

In this part of the World coal is still transported by the 1500ton trainload in gthe North Island from the Port of Tauranga to the Huntly Power Station and from Rotowaro near Huntly to the Glenbrook Steel Mill near Auckland. Ironically although Huntly origonally burned locally mined Rotowaro (Lake of Burning Embers) Genesis Energy began using coal imported from Indonesia about 20 years ago (although it played hell with the boilers) with coal as a back up to natural gas although resources nearly exhausted. There has been talk of converting Huntly to Biomass produced by the New Zealand forestry industry but sourcing adequate quantities of suitable material could be challenging with the run down in the processing industry with the closure of mills due to high electricity costs, exporting logs has become more profitable than pulp, board and finished lumber.

On the South Island Unit trains of coking coal from the West Coast mines still cross the Alps en-route to the Port of Littleton on the East Coast for export to Far Eastern Steel Mills and thermal coal is still transported by the wagon load for use by the dairy processing industry in the South East.

Traffic in coking coal is likely to continue for some time although the signature GE Dx U boat locomotives are likely to be replaced during the next couple of years by new Standler locomotives after 50 years hard use. The GEs are currently undergoing repairs for export to South Africa where the could potentially see use with their SAR Class 34 cousins

While I used to spend a lot of time chasing and taking photos of trains, less so in recent years possibly the shift from SLRs to iphones never got a medium focus camera, trains have become less interesting over the past 15 or so years with less variety in motive power/stock.

Edited April 7 by Mayner

[skinner75]

I'm surprised the orange idiot hasn't forced US car manufacturers to abandon petrol/diesel engines in favour of a coal/heavy oil hybrid system! Clown that he is

On 6/4/2026 at 12:00 PM, Mayner said:

Back in the day I used to travel great distances by air and road to take pictures of large diesel locomotives hauling unit coal trains through mountain ranges in the United States and New Zealand not exactly green from any perspective but great fun while it lasted.

 

Much, much greener than hauling 200+ coal wagon loads on the road by truck!