The Future of Train Technology

coming up what does the future of railroading look like specifically how will modern locomotives be powered from batteries to hydrogen this Cutting Edge technology is slowly becoming reality on the rails we'll explore how all this works and examin some radical designs all that and more is next we'll begin with the railroad that's leading the charge when it comes to hydrogen fuel cell locomotives it all started at the end of 2020 when Canadian Pacific now known as Canadian Pacific Kansas City announced it would build North America's first Hydrogen powerered Lin Hall locomotive the locomotive would be made from an ex existing SD40 d2f which was more than 30 years old at the time instead of diesel engine the old locomotive was retrofitted with hydrogen fuel cells and batteries to put it very simply the hydrogen fuel cells make electricity by combining oxygen and hydrogen in an electrochemical reaction and the only exhaust created is water vapor the electricity generated by the fuel cells is then used to power the locomotives electric traction Motors another cool feature is the batteries on board which can store electricity produced by regenerative braking although current production Freight diesels don't have regenerative braking most do have Dynamic brakes here the traction Motors are basically turned into generators to slow the locomotive and the train down but instead of capturing the electricity it's burned off as heat of course the locomotives you see on the rails today are powered by large diesel engines and most of those engines are turbocharged to produce as much power as possible that big engine produces electricity for the locomotives electric traction Motors fueling of these diesel electric units isn't all that complicated and can be done in matter of minutes at fuel pad or using tanker truck the hydrogen locomotive cpkc has developed also benefit from relatively fast refueling an advantage over locomotives powered solely by batteries which could take hours to recharge now it would seem cpkc is pretty serious about the future of hydrogen powerered locomotives they've also retrofitted two other units for different uses number 102 is described by cpkc as yard switcher in January 2024 Facebook post cpkc said locomotives 101 and 10002 are in regular service in Calgary Canada of course that means these units aren't going too far from the shop but number 1200 is little different it's former ac4400cw and is designed for longdistance heavy Hall Freight as you can see the unit also features 4 axle compressed hydrogen tender and by the way this footage shows number 1200 helping to haul coal train on the mainline that Milestone was achieved in September 2024 and second test run was completed in October of that year the coal hauled by these trains fuels Canada's steel making industry big hurdle limiting the widespread use of hydrogen powered machines and transportation is its production the most common method is steam methane reforming known as gray hydrogen it's created using chemical reaction between methane and steam but this process does emit carbon dioxide however carbon capture and storage can be added to the process this is known as blue hydrogen and is costly electrolysis of water can also be used to produce hydrogen although it is more expensive than steam methane reforming however it is possible to do this with renewable electricity like power generated from solar panels wind farms or hydroelectric dams using this method is known as green hydrogen the International Energy agency says as of 2023 less than 1% of dedicated hydrogen production was low carbon for now the locomotive cpkc has developed are getting their hydrogen from Canadian facilities in Calgary and Edmonton both use electrolysis with the Calgary facility using solar panels to generate some of its power while the Edmonton facility gets its electricity from the grid so what about safety well when we think about hydrogen this may come to mind the crash of the Hindenburg in 1937 made hydrogen infamous of course the craft wasn't powered by hydrogen instead it used the gas for Lift no one has ever been able to agree on cause of the crash but it did show just how flammable hydrogen can be it's also colorless odorless and tasteless and if hydrogen ignites the Flames are nearly invisible fortunately according to an article posted by Railway age cpc's hydrogen units are well ventilated to allow hydrogen to escape if it leaks high amounts of hydrogen gas can ignite there are also detectors on board to prevent catastrophic accident despite the potential risks other railroads have shown interest in hydrogen powered future in April 2024 CSX unveiled number 2100 this unit was built at the company's Huntington West Virginia shop using kit developed by cpkc but long before all of these projects Burlington Northern Santa commissioned this prototype hydrogen locomotive it was built in the early 2000s this locomotive was never actually used in regular service and its hydrogen components were later stripped and the unit was donated to the Oklahoma Railway Museum of course there are also other projects that are ongoing that have not yet produced physical prototype locomotive webtech released this conceptual rendering of hydrogen locomotive and tender and this looks nothing like anything on the rails today the company has also shown off its single cylinder dual fuel locomotive engine this is collaboration with the Argon and Oakridge National Laboratories with Department of energy support webtech is also exploring how to adapt current locomotive engines to burn hydrogen this would actually be mixture of hydrogen and Diesel the ladder being needed for combustion in 2021 webtech also announced it would collaborate with General Motors to develop its hydrotech hydrogen fuel cell and Altium battery technologies okay so what about fully electric solution in the northeastern United States powerful electric locomotives all passenger trains and electric multiple units are part of commuter rail fleets at one point there were even electric locomotives pulling Freight on what's now known as the Northeast Corridor but to get this done in other parts of North America would require very large investment in infrastructure to install the components needed just think about all the overhead Canary that makes up the Northeast Corridor in 2019 webtech developed an alternative they call it Flex drive it's battery electric locomotive now you may remember back in 2001 before webtech took over developed battery hybrid locomotive that could capture electricity from regenerative braking however this technology was never implemented into production locomotives webtech says its newer Flex Drive concept supports stationary fast charging and regenerative brake charging and future options will include charging while on the Move internally the locomotive features liquid cooled Battery Technology plus thermal management system which is supposed to optimize battery life and energy output according to webtech web Tech's competitor Progress Rail the owner of electromotive diesel is also developing battery electric locomotives they call this series of locomotives the jewel EMD says these can be newly built units or the technology can be outfitted to an existing platform these units are also able to capture electricity from regenerative braking this promotional brochure shows Wayside charging station that tops off the locomotive when it's stopped as you can see there are few variants of the jewel some of these are smaller and intended for export markets where clearances are Tighter and honestly with all these battery units being developed electromotive diesel might want to consider changing its name now this has been attempted before in North America in 2009 norfol Southern rolled out number 999 battery electric switcher but according to study done by the Federal Railroad Administration this switcher wasn't economically viable the lithium ion batteries it would need to perform to Railroad standards were just too expensive so let's face it the reality is internal combustion engines will be around for the foreseeable future and some companies have started to develop hybrid locomotives While others are using alternative fuels for example the Florida East Coast Railway uses liquefied natural gas for its Lin Hall locomotives and LG actually Burns cleaner than diesel as we all know hybrid cars trucks and SUVs are extremely common on our roads today but they may also start popping up on the rails and environments like this could be the Proving Grounds for hybrid locomotive technology Rail Yards offer plenty of tonnage for locomotives to push and pull along with hard impacts that test just how tough these machines are plus the unit is often near shop if something goes wrong Canadian national announced this medium horsepower hybrid electric locomotive at the beginning of 2025 it was built in collaboration with Knoxville locomotive works and CN says it's 100% biofuel Ready Union Pacific unveiled this 2un hybrid diesel battery Electric lashup in 2024 according to up press release this will operate as mother slug set with one unit running on diesel and the slug providing battery power slugs are very common in Rail Yards today they don't have diesel engines and rely on mother unit to supply their traction motors with electricity having all those axles powered helps to provide more attractive effort to push and pull heavy loads up says this set can be topped off by Wayside charger and it also has onboard self-charging capabilities there's no doubt green energy used in transportation is getting lot of attention these days and I'm sure there are projects I've missed here in most of these cases we're relying on press releases and publicity photos and videos to understand what these companies and railroads are building think it's pretty safe to say much of the technology I've mentioned hasn't been perfected yet the production of batteries that can be used in large machines is expensive and so is the production of hydrogen not to mention the cost of research and development for hydrogen fuel cells of course there are still many unanswered questions that will only be known once these machines are in regular service will they be rugged enough to handle the hard impacts long days and harsh environments that exist on the railroad there's no doubt we'll be talking about this stuff for long time to come anyway that's it for now please consider subscribing if you haven't already this channel recently hit 100,000 subscribers and I'm very grateful to all of you for making that happen as always thanks for watching and I'll see you next time