Industry sources report that the German boiler manufacture Dampflokwerk Meiningen has been contracted by a coal company with commercial interests in transporting its product by rail to produce a prototype locomotive. Dampflokwerk is tight-lipped about the project, which is reputed to be an extension and upgrading of the Schmidt-Henschel experimental locomotives that were built in several countries between the wars. The locomotives were generally regarded to be failures and had a life-span of no more than one or two years. One, on the LMS railway in Great Britain, killed one of its design engineers in an explosion. The EC Industrial Emissions Rapporteur, Dr Avril Premier, previously was a consultant to ABB Henschel AG, insists that something is afoot. "It is my understanding that a coal company, which has recently tendered for access rights to the DB Netze network, wants to use its own product to transport its output. "I have been shown some preliminary plans for a triple-pressure boiler operating at about 2500, 1800 and 900 kilopascals. The two high pressure circuits would employ distilled water, which is recycled after expansion, but the low-pressure circuit would use 'make-up' water from a local treated supply." Industry insiders say that the mechanical aspects of the prototype have been contracted out to a firm it will not name, but confirms that a fairly classic design with "direct drive" will be used. Die Grünen (Green party), which holds 68 out of 612 seats in the Bundestag, have called the project "Greenhouse madness". Green party member Erster Viertermonat, a German delegate to the Copenhagen summit, said that the Greens would be working to have the project put on hold, while the energy and carbon dioxide implications are investigated. "The whole concept of coal is boosting up the Greenhouse gas emissions, yet here we have the madness of a coal company planning to once more increase them more so by using inefficient technology to burn yet further coal," he said. "There is no need to do such a stupid thing." A consulting engineer who did not wish to be named said that carbon dioxide will be the only significant emission, all other pollutants being eliminated through a combination of using coal slurry, high temperature combustion and exhaust scrubbing. Independent experts confirmed that such a locomotive would be only 40% as thermally efficient as an electrified railway, but that the overall CO2 emissions would be lower when pollution caused by the capital phase of the project was taken into consideration.
