Chance For Rail To Distribute Hydrogen And Use It As Alternative Power Supply
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Rail Magazine.
These are the first three paragraphs.
Hydrogen can have a future in logistics as well as being an alternative power source for traction.
Speaking at RAIL Live, Mark Downing, Head of Industrial Energy at Heavy Haul Rail, argued that rail was best suited for the transport of hydrogen.
“Energy has always moved by rail. You’ve got coal, you’ve got fuel, this is the next energy process that can be put onto rail at scale,” he said.
Mark Downing talks a lot of sense.
The article has a heading picture of a HydroFlex or Class 799 train,which is a hydrogen-hybrid train that can be powered by electrification or an onboard hydrogen fuel cell.
I’d certainly like to see a Class 799 train running services on an appropriate branch line. The article suggests the West of Wales, or the North of Scotland.
Charles Calvert, Chief Innovation Officer at Vanguard Sustainable Transport Solutions, gives this view. “I would love to see at least one of those routes get decarbonised by any other measure in the next five years.”
Google AI says this about the range of a HydroFlex train.
The HydroFLEX train, developed by Porterbrook and the University of Birmingham, has a potential range of over 300 miles on a single fill of hydrogen.
The long range would probably allow the refuelling point to be developed at a safe point on the route, where hydrogen could be delivered by rail.
The Birmingham International and Aberystwyth route could be a possible hydrogen route.
- It has a total length of 132.3 miles
- There is no electrification between Aberystwyth and Shrewsbury, which is a distance of 111.2 miles.
- As Aberystwyth station has the Vale of Rheidol steam railway, I suspect that Aberystwyth station would not be an ideal refuelling point.
- But Machynlleth Maintenance Depot could be, although it is 20.7 miles and 35 minutes from Aberystwyth.
- The Aberystwyth and Pwllheli services split and join at Machynlleth station, so could refuelling be combined with the split and join?
- Pwllheli and Machynlleth are 57.8 miles and 150 minutes apart.
The most promising of the English stations would be Birmingham International station, which is shown in this Google Map.
Note.
- Birmingham International station is in the North-West corner of the map.
- The electrified Rugby, Birmingham and Stafford Line runs diagonally through the map.
- In addition to their Aberystwyth/Pwllheli service, there is also a Llandudno Junction service that terminates at Birmingham International.
- I wonder, if there is space South of Coventry Road, to build a combined charging and hydrogen refuelling station, that could refuel all trains terminating at Birmingham International.
As the section without electrification is 111.2 miles on the Aberystwyth service, 148.3 miles on the Pwllheli service and 116.5 miles on the Llandudno Junction service , I suspect that these services could be too far for battery-electric trains, without charging at the Western end.
Carbon-Cutting Test Run Sees Welsh Timber Return To Railway
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on RailBusinessDaily.
These are the first two paragraphs.
For the first time since 2005, a freight train carrying Welsh timber left Aberystwyth as part of a trial that could see regular freight traffic return to the Cambrian line.
The successful trial, aimed at exploring the feasibility of transporting timber by rail to reduce carbon emissions, opens up the possibility of removing hundreds of large lorries from the rural roads of mid Wales.
These are a few details and points from the article.
- The terminal at Aberystwyth appears to have been just outside Aberystwyth station.
- The timber was taken to Kronospan at Chirk in North Wales.
- The 700 ton load of ten wagons was hauled by a pair of Class 37 locomotives.
- The pair was needed because of the route.
- Network Rail claim that upwards of sixteen trucks were taken off the roads of mid-Wales.
This Network Rail picture shows the loading of timber at Aberystwyth station.
And this Network Rail picture shows the two Class 37 locomotives.
It looks to me, that the locomotives pushed the empty train in and pulled the full train out. Once on its way, the train took the Cambrian Line to Shrewsbury and then it was about twenty miles to tyhe Kronospan factory at Chirk.
This video shows the train leaving.
I appears to have been filmed at a convenient level crossing.
Conclusion
It must have been a success, as they are going to repeat the exercise.
There would appear to be only one problem. The pair of Class 37 locomotives make a bit of a noise.
- The pair have a power of 2610 kW.
- I estimate that the journey between Aberystwyth and Chirk will take around two hours and thirty minutes.
- Aberystwyth and Chirk is a distance of about a hundred miles.
It looks to me that this journey could be handled by one of the new Class 99 locomotives, that I wrote about in Class 99 Electro-Diesel Locomotive Order Confirmed.
I also doubt whether a battery-electric Class 99 locomotive could handle the route, but a hydrogen-powered locomotive, that fuelled at Aberystwyth might be able to do it.
I do think though, that passenger trains between Aberystwyth and Shrewsbury could in the future be hydrogen-powered.
So if hydrogen were to be provided at Aberystwyth, hydrogen haulage of the timber trains would be a possibility.
The Anonymous Widower 