How far on a tank of fuel?

[dstrat]

This just got me thinking. Apparently a Class 70 has a 6000l fuel tank hock:

That would cost me about 8 grand to fill up at a filling station. So how far can you get on 8 grands worth of supermarket diesel in the thing?

And if anybody has any ideas on distances of other trains on their tanks please chip in

 

[scotraildriver]

DMU's do roughly 6mpg/per vehicle. No idea of a class 70. So a 2 car 156 will do 3mpg per set.

 

[Bald Rick]

DMU's do roughly 6mpg/per vehicle. No idea of a class 70. So a 2 car 156 will do 3mpg per set.

Quite a bit less than that, esp for more modern, heavy units with air con etc.

Eg an HST with almost 2000 gals on board will make the 1200ish mile return trip London - Inverness, but there's not much left in the tanks when it gets back.

Also, don't forget that the rail industry doesn't pay excise duty or VAT on diesel for (rail) traction, so it's much cheaper than at the supermarket. Albeit electricity is far cheaper still.

Edit - slaps head, for an HST on a per vehicle basis that of course then makes it about 6mpg... Long day!

 

[Bigfoot]

According to the traction manual for 158/159 stock each coach has a 400 gallon tank or 1818 Ltr. £2500 at the filling station...

The manual also says that that is enough fuel to travel Waterloo to Exeter and back twice over. Which is 688 miles exactly. Guess their is spare in there for shunting and idling at terminus. Still an mpg of 1.7...

 

[Crossover]

Surely if a DMU coach can do 6mpg then two together both running normally would also do 6mpg overall?

 

[TDK]

This just got me thinking. Apparently a Class 70 has a 6000l fuel tank hock:

That would cost me about 8 grand to fill up at a filling station. So how far can you get on 8 grands worth of supermarket diesel in the thing?

And if anybody has any ideas on distances of other trains on their tanks please chip in

I know 175's I think take 2000lts per coach and can do a lot of mileage on that. Class 67's with 4 coaches and a DVT can do about 1250 on a tank safely and that will be about 4000lts, a 67 if I remember correctly has a 5000lt tank. Just to clarify if a unit does 6mpg per coach then if it is a 2 or even a 10 car it will do 6mpg not half. I think class 150's do about 6mpg but then again they are basic with no aircon etc.

 

[rebmcr]

Surely if a DMU coach can do 6mpg then two together both running normally would also do 6mpg overall?

Only if they both have an engine and a fuel tank. Otherwise, parts of the equation get shared out.

 

[sprinterguy]

Only if they both have an engine and a fuel tank. Otherwise, parts of the equation get shared out.

In this day and age there aren't any DMUs on the national network hauling trailer vehicles about (Except, pedants, the Hastings diesels class 201), they're all powered vehicles with their own fuel tanks. So Crossover is surely correct.

 

[HSTfan!!!]

It would depend on so many factors, taking a 66 (which have 5150 or 6400 litre tanks) with a heavy train from say wales to birmingham via the lickey which is mainly notch 8 work is going to use a hell of a lot more than the same train going the other way. We use red diesel as well from what I remember so a lot cheaper than supermarket fuel.
Another thing to bear in mind is mpg is not really a fair comparison, if you consider your average dmu does 6mpg, it might sound low but given the capacity compared to your average 5 seater car, it probably still works out cheaper?

 

[Cherry_Picker]

That's where trains win. You have to calculate per passenger mile, ie how many people you can carry a mile per gallon of fuel. A car might get 40mpg but usually it will only have one person in it, a train which gets 6mpg could have a few hundred people on board.

 

[sprinterguy]

In this day and age there aren't any DMUs on the national network hauling trailer vehicles about (Except, pedants, the Hastings diesels class 201), they're all powered vehicles with their own fuel tanks. So Crossover is surely correct.

Although…while each powered vehicle in this hypothetical scenario has a fuel efficiency of 6mpg, with multiple unit trains in particular the fuel efficiency for the train as a whole will be affected by the number of powered carriages: For instance, 6 diesel engines all burning fuel at a rate of 6mpg would mean that a gallon of fuel is actually used up, across all the fuel tanks on the train, every mile.

 

[scotraildriver]

DMU's do roughly 6mpg/per vehicle. No idea of a class 70. So a 2 car 156 will do 3mpg per set.

2 engines will use a gallon each to cover 6 miles. Therefore 2 gallons per 6 miles = 3 miles per gallon per train, not per engine.

 

[PHILIPE]

When diagramming the mileage fuel capacity is used, i.e. 158 = 1600 miles.

 

[sprinterguy]

2 engines will use a gallon each to cover 6 miles. Therefore 2 gallons per 6 miles = 3 miles per gallon per train, not per engine.

Yeah, it took me a little while to work it out, but I eventually clocked your meaning.

 

[455driver]

Also, don't forget that the rail industry doesn't pay excise duty or VAT on diesel for (rail) traction, so it's much cheaper than at the supermarket.

That used to be the case but I think Gordon Broooon decided the railways could start paying duty (at 5% I think) several years ago.

 

[TOCDriver]

For an HST: Each power car has ~1200 gallons, approx 1 mile per gallon on the old engines, MTU's are more economical so maybe.....2mpg. FGW generally use 1000 gallons in a tank - half a tank = about 500 miles left etc etc.

 

[edwin_m]

That used to be the case but I think Gordon Broooon decided the railways could start paying duty (at 5% I think) several years ago.

I've never heard this, but if it is so I'm sure the TOCs would have something in their contracts indemnifying them so that they could claim the extra costs back from DfT.

 

[Pacerpilot]

The Class 66 traction manual quotes an average of 9.5 litres per mile for a loaded train which equates to 632miles. Ouch.

 

[Blindtraveler]

2 questions. 1, lots of foalk saying how cheep pacers are to run. Whats there MPG? On the other end of the spectrum, whats the consumption of the rather overweight 185s?

 

[TOCDriver]

2 questions. 1, lots of foalk saying how cheep pacers are to run. Whats there MPG? On the other end of the spectrum, whats the consumption of the rather overweight 185s?

Pacers will get you 6-8 mpg fully laden and on a stopper service. About 8-10 on a semi fast where you don't stop as often. 185's full loaded I would guess at 4-6 mpg, 6-8 when crusing on WCML for instance

 

[Blindtraveler]

Interesting, would have thought 185s would have been thirstier. They have just gone a tiny bit up in my estimations, but not by much!!

 

[Wolf]

142s/144s do around a 1000 miles per tank and 15x do around 1600

 

[TDK]

142s/144s do around a 1000 miles per tank and 15x do around 1600

The factor missing is the capacity of the tanks!

 

[SpacePhoenix]

For modern DMUs does it make much difference if 1 or more engines are shutdown?

 

[zn1]

in the old days a 47/0 from humber to Langley(Berkshire - slough) dragging a trainload of TEA's would be refuelled at OOC for the run home

I have forgotten the fuel ranges of the locos and units...

I can advise though that a fowler 422/0 DM diesel shunting loco will run about a gallon per hour when running...

 

[steamybrian]

in the old days a 47/0 from humber to Langley(Berkshire - slough) dragging a trainload of TEA's would be refuelled at OOC for the run home

I have forgotten the fuel ranges of the locos and units...

I can advise though that a fowler 422/0 DM diesel shunting loco will run about a gallon per hour when running...

In my days (long ago) when locomotive diagramming for BR (Southern) I used to calculate the diagrams for class 33 , 73 and DEMUs as using one gallon per mile.
Shunting was based on 4 mph ( i.e. 4 gallons for each one hour of shunting)

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

I always remember the Morecambe and Wise sketch, where Ernie Wise was the oil company executive and Eric Morecambe was the driver chosen to see how well a new fuel would go in his basic model car. At the end of the test, the conversation went:-

Ernie Wise : Well sir, what do you think of our new super economy fuel. You have done 106,000 miles on one gallon.

Eric Morecambe : But the car's clapped out !