Siemens Mobility and Deutsche Bahn Present New Hydrogen Train
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Global Railway Review.
This is the sub-title.
Deutsche Bahn and Siemens Mobility have presented the newly developed Mireo Plus H and a newly designed mobile hydrogen storage trailer.
It seems that Deutsche Bahn and Siemens Mobility have put together a well-thought out plan to use hydrogen on a lot of unelectrified lines.
The Germans have given the project, the catchy name of H2goesRail.
How does that translate into German?
Is This One Of The Most Useful Lifts In London?
This lift at King’s Cross station must be one of the most useful lifts in London’s extensive public transport system.
At the top-level it comes out into King’s Cross Square and it is a level walk to the following.
- All the platforms in King’s Cross National Rail station.
- The shops, which include Leon, Marks and Spencer, Waitrose and W H Smith, in King’s Cross National Rail station.
- The taxi rank.
- The Eastbound buses, which line up at their stops along the side of King’s Cross Square.
I was using it yesterday, to get a bus to Boots at the Angel, as I had a prescription to pick up. The 30 or 73 bus is quicker than the Northern Line, as that is a long walk and a road crossing at the Angel.
I’d arrived at King’s Cross on the Circle Line from Paddington and the bottom level of this lift is by the ticket gates under King’s Cross Square, that give access to all lines through King’s Cross Underground station.
There is also a middle level on the lift, that takes you under Euston Road to get a Westbound bus or gives you access to a step-free route to St. Pancras station.
A Gluten-Free Sandwich In Costa
Costa announced a couple of months ago, that they would be selling M & S Food.
Even so, I was still surprised to find this gluten-free sandwich in Costa at Paddington station.
I actually prefer their egg sandwiches, as for some reason egg sandwich fillings seem to go well with gluten-free bread.
Are Finally Battery-Electric Trains Going To Enter Service?
In the April 2022 Edition of Modern Railways, there are three articles about battery-electric trains on four different routes.
- Effort To Contain Costs For Hoo Reopening talks about the reopening of the Hoo Branch in Kent.
- Uckfield Third Rail Is NR Priority talks about running battery-electric trains on the Uckfield Branch and the Marshlink Line.
- Vivarail’s Battery ‘230’ For Greenford Branch, talks about the Class 230 train, that will be running on the Greenford branch.
The technology has been a long-term arriving, as I had my first ride in a battery-electric train in February 2015, which I wrote about in Is The Battery Electric Multiple Unit (BEMU) A Big Innovation In Train Design?.
What kept it so long?
Is This A Plan For The Marshlink Line?
Uckfield Third Rail Is NR Priority is based on an article in the April 2022 Edition of Modern Railways, with the same name.
The Modern Railways article also has this to say about the Marshlink Line.
By contrast, the shorter trains in use on the Marshlink Line between Ashford and Hastings made bi-modes with batteries a realistic option there.
The Marshlink Line is electrified at both ends at Ashford International and Ore stations.
- In between there are four small stations and one large one Rye in the middle.
- Ashford and Rye are 15.3 miles apart.
- Rye and Ore are 10.1 miles apart.
- As it runs across the Romney Marsh, there probably aren’t too many gradients.
It would appear that with a fast charge system at Rye, battery-electric operation should be possible.
In an article in the October 2017 Edition of Modern Railways, which is entitled Celling England By The Pound, Ian Walmsley says this in relation to trains running on the Uckfield Branch, which is not very challenging.
A modern EMU needs between 3 and 5 kWh per vehicle mile for this sort of service.
For different lengths of trains, battery sizes can be calculated based on a distance of sixteen miles.
- A five-car train would need a battery capacity of between 240 and 400 kWh.
- A four-car train would need a battery capacity of between 192 and 320 kWh.
- A three-car train would need a battery capacity of between 144 and 240 kWh.
In Uckfield Third Rail Is NR Priority, I estimated that the Uckfield branch could be served using five-car trains with batteries between 180 and 300 kWh.
It does look that a five-car battery-electric train could be developed that would handle both the Uckfield Branch and the Marshlink Line.
The Anonymous Widower 