Where do trains refuel and what range do they have?
cjsjd asked:
For example, where do the trains between Cardiff & London refuel? What range do they have before they need to refuel?
For example, where do the trains between Cardiff & London refuel? What range do they have before they need to refuel?
In the USA, railroads provide fueling facilities at strategic locations along the line. You can identify these by looking for a fuel storage tank and a fueling platform with counterweighted cranes carrying short hoses that end in fittings appropriate to the locomotive fuel tanks. These are usually located at locomotive servicing facilities and at stations and freight yards where heavy traffic is handled. One assumes similar arrangements apply in the UK.
A diesel locomotive pulling a short passenger train may use 1.5 gallons per mile or so of fuel. Heavily loaded with freight it may use 15-18 gallons per mile. The fuel tanks contain anywhere from 1,000 gallons to 2,500 gallons.
So the operating range may vary from 50 miles to 1,500 miles depending on locomotive type, load and conditions.
In the UK they normally refuel overnight at their depots, and carry enough fuel to last the days’ duties. For your query about Cardiff - London trains, First Great Westerns’ main depots are at Old Oak Common, 2 miles out of London Paddington, St Philips Marsh, Bristol, and Plymouth Laira. Each of the two class 43 locos can hold up to 4500 litres / 990 imperial gallons / 1190 US gallons of fuel.
The longest scheduled route run by an IC125 train (in BR days) was Plymouth to Aberdeen which is, I think, about 650 miles.