Post #2391049

@schrottkatze@mastodon.catgirl.cloud @lalonsander@chaos.social considering a diesel locomotive which uses 6-20 g diesel per t·km; let's assume 10 for simplicity's sake. diesel has an energy density of 43 kJ/g, or about 10 kcal/g. that would work out to 100 kcal/t·km, or 0.1 cal/g·km. so about the same order of magnitude as a human on a bike. possibly even lower. electric locomotives may be even more efficient. that is, if you count energy per total mass moved. a bike typically has less than a quarter of the mass of the human riding it, but a train can weigh many times more than what it's transporting, especially if what it's transporting is humans. for instance, a crowded twindexx carriage might transport something like 250 people. assuming an average human+luggage weighs 100 kg, that's 25 t of payload in a >50 t carriage, plus maybe 75 t of locomotive…