Eli5: If we had steam powered trains back in the day, why didn’t steam become a common “clean” energy source? Why did it die out?
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Steam power is still around. Coal power plants make power by burning coal to boil water into steam, which spins a turbine that generates electricity.
It’s the same with natural gas and oil power plants. Even nuclear power plants use steam to generate power, only instead of burning fuel they use nuclear decay to heat the water.
Steam power is still around. Coal power plants make power by burning coal to boil water into steam, which spins a turbine that generates electricity.
It’s the same with natural gas and oil power plants. Even nuclear power plants use steam to generate power, only instead of burning fuel they use nuclear decay to heat the water.
Steam power is still around. Coal power plants make power by burning coal to boil water into steam, which spins a turbine that generates electricity.
It’s the same with natural gas and oil power plants. Even nuclear power plants use steam to generate power, only instead of burning fuel they use nuclear decay to heat the water.
Steam is made by boiling water. There are many ways to boil water. Steam trains were usually fuelled by coal, just like a coal-fired power station.
I think you need to know how a power station works first, and that’s by a magnet spinning whilst surrounded by a copper coil. So what we really want is to spin the magnet. This is often done by steam. You can boil water with gas, coal, nuclear or geothermal (which is actually “clean”). Other options include using water to spin the magnet in hydroelectric plants.
So, sure, steam itself is clean. The process of making steam isn’t always so.
Steam is made by boiling water. There are many ways to boil water. Steam trains were usually fuelled by coal, just like a coal-fired power station.
I think you need to know how a power station works first, and that’s by a magnet spinning whilst surrounded by a copper coil. So what we really want is to spin the magnet. This is often done by steam. You can boil water with gas, coal, nuclear or geothermal (which is actually “clean”). Other options include using water to spin the magnet in hydroelectric plants.
So, sure, steam itself is clean. The process of making steam isn’t always so.
Steam is made by boiling water. There are many ways to boil water. Steam trains were usually fuelled by coal, just like a coal-fired power station.
I think you need to know how a power station works first, and that’s by a magnet spinning whilst surrounded by a copper coil. So what we really want is to spin the magnet. This is often done by steam. You can boil water with gas, coal, nuclear or geothermal (which is actually “clean”). Other options include using water to spin the magnet in hydroelectric plants.
So, sure, steam itself is clean. The process of making steam isn’t always so.
New York still uses steam for heating and cooling buildings. They send steam through underground pipes to buildings, as an alternative to using electricity or gas directly.
Steam isn’t inherently clean. Your heat source largely determines how clean or not a method is. Heat engines are inherently inefficient, limited by [Carnot’s theorem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnot%27s_theorem_(thermodynamics)) which says the maximum efficiency depends on the temperature difference and the ‘hot’ side. ‘Steam’ locomotives were really coal locomotives. They also exhausted the steam, so they consumed both water and fuel.
Diesel engines use a liquid for fuel, so you don’t need to shovel a solid coal into a firebox. The modern diesel-electric locomotive uses a diesel engine to turn a generator to make electricity to power motors. This takes advantage of the increased efficiency of a diesel internal combustion engine, and the fact that electric motors can be made more efficient and produce turning force (torque) at zero speed. (Internal combustion engines need to be rotating to produce the torque.) Electric locomotives receive electrical power, so they don’t even need to carry their own fuel. If you don’t need to accelerate the fuel around, that’s even more efficient. Electricity can also be generated in ways that don’t involve burning fuel, or with more efficient fuels. Plus for underground stuff you then don’t have to worry about exhausting the combustion products or steam.
Really tangential to your original question, but [combined cycle](https://youtu.be/eeiu-wcyEbs) uses a gas turbine in tandem with a steam turbine [for extra efficiency](https://www.ge.com/gas-power/resources/education/combined-cycle-power-plants), so that’s one way that electric trains are more efficient.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disneyland_Railroad says they use diesel oil in the firebox to make the steam.
You might want to search for things like ‘timeline of train technology’. One of the top results was https://www.railway-technology.com/features/featuretracks-in-time-200-years-of-locomotive-technology-4517022/ which looks pretty good.
New York still uses steam for heating and cooling buildings. They send steam through underground pipes to buildings, as an alternative to using electricity or gas directly.
New York still uses steam for heating and cooling buildings. They send steam through underground pipes to buildings, as an alternative to using electricity or gas directly.
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