Gumboots wrote:Anyway, I was idly considering how strategy could be approached for such a scenario. The big thing for me is how do I get to run lots of steam trains in a low carbon economy?
Have had some initial thoughts. First one is that you'd probably either have to disable coal completely, or tax it heavily, or possibly start with tax and then phase it out. That's not necessarily going to stop steamers, since they only need a source of heat and that doesn't need to be coal. Oil is another alternative. LPG or methane are others. Even hydrogen would work in theory.* The problem with the last three is getting them into the RT3 economy (which you can't do, AFAIK).RulerofRails wrote:Now there you have a real problem. If steamers were considered to be polluters shortly after 1900 when electrics started to be used in large cities, what about now? Only thing I can think of is if oil runs out in the future making them unavoidable.
Really, for suburban areas that have short distances and a high revenue base, electric makes the most sense. Non-electric only really makes sense for long hauls where the infrastructure cost of electric gets too high.
The pollution problem is the early 1900's was mainly related to unburned soot, which isn't going to be a problem with modernised steamers. Porta had that sorted years ago, even for coal, with his vapourising firebox idea.
One nifty possibility would be introducing the use of silanes - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silanes - and - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_ ... neutrality
This is interesting because it could be done by using the otherwise useless "crystals" cargo to represent silicon. Not currently sure how you would change those into burnable silanes, but offhand a warehouse seems like it would work.A power unit based on advanced steam technology burning fossil fuel will inevitably emit carbon dioxide, a long-lasting greenhouse gas. However, significant reductions, compared to other combustion technologies, of other pollutants such as CO and NOx are achievable by steam technology, which does not involve explosive combustion, without the need for add-ons such as filters etc. or special preparation of fuel.
If renewable fuel such as wood or other biofuel is used then the system could be carbon neutral. The use of biofuel remains controversial; however, liquid biofuels are easier to manufacture for steam plant than for diesels as they do not demand the stringent fuel standards required to protect diesel injectors.
It has been proposed that, given sufficient solar energy, silicon might be refined for use as a coal replacement for this type of engine.
Obviously you'd want to look at the electrical power generation side of things too. Coal-fired plants would have to be taxed or phased out. Nuclear would work, as long as the area was geologically stable. From memory the default files include .3dp and .dds for a whacking great wind turbine, but I'm not sure how it could be used. I suppose solar and hydro models are feasible too, as custom buildings or something.
*ETA: I suppose some form of biofuel is a possibility too. Growing crops for it is not really a good idea on a large scale, but it can be synthesised from some types of algae and/or bacterial cultures.
I've been reading up on silane chemistry too. Interesting stuff.