How to plow a field...

Discussion in 'Lounge' started by Huevos, May 18, 2014.

  1. Huevos

    Huevos In Maximum Overdrive

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  2. 72GTVA

    72GTVA Administrator Staff Member

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    That settles it! All this dang new fangled fancy-smancy shtuff - what is this world coming to? I guess we'll see a big move to coal fired steam turbines for our rancheros now...
     
  3. ribald1

    ribald1 Banned PLATINUM MEMBER

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    An 8000 pound Ranchero would be a formidable beast!
     
  4. 72GTVA

    72GTVA Administrator Staff Member

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    Don't bug me - I'm busy searching ebay for good steam plant for Whitefish! To heck with putting a 351 CJ back in her...
     
  5. ForistellFord

    ForistellFord In Maximum Overdrive GOLD MEMBER

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    Looked like that big boy wasn't even trying.
     
  6. Denny

    Denny In Maximum Overdrive

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    I've always heard that it takes several diesel locomotives to do the same job that one steam engine could do. I still don't want the job of shoveling coal.
     
  7. handy_andy_cv64

    handy_andy_cv64 In Maximum Overdrive SILVER MEMBER

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    But one steam engine needed about 50 times the preventive maintenance and fully rebuilt several times in its life. The part about several locomotives: three 4300 HP GE or EMD locos with just 33% adhesion from electronic wheelslip control pulls a train that's 40% heavier than the longest/heaviest trains from the late 1950s. Any steamer on straight and level track with the best of conditions can only manage about 25% adhesion maximum. The diesel-electric locomotive also puts out much less harmful exhaust than the cleanest steam firebox with forced draft.
     
  8. Huevos

    Huevos In Maximum Overdrive

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    There you go getting all Green on us, Whats a little soot amongst friends?
     
  9. handy_andy_cv64

    handy_andy_cv64 In Maximum Overdrive SILVER MEMBER

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    Green, Hell!!! The name of the game is efficiency, and any hogger allowing his firebox to run dirty got a warning; If it happened again, he was demoted (or fired, during the Great Depression) and had to work his way back up. Efficiency was really important during the existence of the ICC, as all railroads were held down to a 2.35% net profit all the way up to 1980 with the passing of the Staggers Act.
     
  10. *RD*

    *RD* In Maximum Overdrive

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    All I have to say is wow, steam power is where it's at!! 1800's technology at it's best!!
     
  11. handy_andy_cv64

    handy_andy_cv64 In Maximum Overdrive SILVER MEMBER

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    WTF, are you some sorta steampunk???:BS-Flag:
     
  12. 72GTVA

    72GTVA Administrator Staff Member

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    I have to admit to a nostalgic fondness for steam, particularly of the 600# and 1,200# variety we used in Forrestal, Independence, America, Constellation, Worden, Halsey, to name only a few. Lot to be said for super-heated steam propulsion especially considering we still got work out of it all the way from the superheater until it was back in the condenser and running through the DFT. America's evaps were a little flakey but the rest were good - where else can you make the boat move, run generators to produce electrical power, cook food, make water hot for showers, warm up the living spaces when traveling in arctic waters, throw airplanes into the air, operate advanced cryrogenic O2 plants, and make fresh water all from the same tiny little boiler(s)... let's see your diesel do all that! :D
     
  13. ribald1

    ribald1 Banned PLATINUM MEMBER

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    We are rapidly going back to electric cars and windmills, steam could very well be next!
     
  14. As Is '66

    As Is '66 2 Wheeled Mod Staff Member

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    Thanks, I`m glad this came up!!!
    I just started plowing the garden spot, yesterday...
    Now I have a new technique to try... ;)
     
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  15. handy_andy_cv64

    handy_andy_cv64 In Maximum Overdrive SILVER MEMBER

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    There's a car Jay Leno owns that's a steamer, but it's not a Stanley Steamer (which he also owns one of); it has a small, high-temp burner and it's closed-loop steam/water. Considering the weight of a gasoline engine and trans, it would be interesting to see if it could be scaled up for a 2500-4000 LB. car/truck.
     
  16. handy_andy_cv64

    handy_andy_cv64 In Maximum Overdrive SILVER MEMBER

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    And as far as electric cars go, why only one battery pack? Why not two or three in parallel with each other? The charging time would double or triple, but if it gives you 350-400 miles range, a weekend charge-up would set you for the work week.
     
  17. burninbush

    burninbush In Maximum Overdrive

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    One of the schemes to make electric cars practical is the notion of easily replaceable [with already charged] battery packs. But the packs have a considerable size -- adding a 2nd and 3rd pack would take up a lot of room -- and money. It would be a huge investment for a service station to stock a bunch of packs.

    Nobody hauls anything in their Chero -- so there's a place to put them in our cars.

    There was a nice article yesterday on PBS Newshour about electric cars with fuel-cells, storing "high presure" hydrogen in some special tanks [didn't say how high, but tanks shown didn't look like dewars]. But they made the point at the end that most of the commercial hydrogen is cracked from methane [Nat gas] -- so why not just burn that fuel directly, much simpler.

    Toyota engineers worked all this out for the first Prius models. Very impressive, and just sad that it didn't happen here.
     
  18. ribald1

    ribald1 Banned PLATINUM MEMBER

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    Not only are the batteries big and heavy, but most people don't have a large enough electrical service to their house to charge something like that.
    As it is many don't have enough power to do a 100 mile charge in less than 48 hours.
    The great thing about electric cars is that back in the early 1900's they went up to 100 miles on a charge, so they haven't gotten any worse.
     
  19. handy_andy_cv64

    handy_andy_cv64 In Maximum Overdrive SILVER MEMBER

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    The current (excuse the word choice) battery packs in the Prius and hybrid SUVs are fairly big and have some heft to them, but the Leaf's nickel-metal hydride batteries are 1/2 the weight and about 2/5ths the size of a Prius pack. The Honda IMA units are D-cell sized cells in series-parallel and weigh about 1/4 that of a Prius. So other than the charging problem (and yes, for a price, electric utilities will install 230V 1PH in a household for a charging station.
     
  20. ribald1

    ribald1 Banned PLATINUM MEMBER

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    Most homes here in CA have 240V services.
    However, the majority are 100Amps or less.
    A rapid charger for an electric car takes 30-50 amps depending on the car. Most homes don't have that kind of surplus power available all the time, especially on weekends.
    I am an electrical contractor and I sell service upgrades to customers who buy electric cars, so I know of what I speak.
    With current technology, you can buy an expensive electric car, and after getting government subsidies and paying for electrical upgrades, can maybe get ahead of the costs of a gas car if it lasts 30 years.
    In other words, exactly the same as it was over 100 years ago.
     

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