Canadian Pacific’s southern merger puts zero-carb freight in easy reach by guest blogger Stan Thompson Canadian Pacific Railway has throttled-up the transition to zero-carbon freight movement by two big notches recently. Last December, 2020, CPR announced “that it plans to develop North America’s first line-haul hydrogen-powered locomotive.” Then in March, 2021, they announced a combination with • Read More »
Search Results for: hydrail
The Mooresville Hydrail Initiative and the little chamber that did
August 18, 2020 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on The Mooresville Hydrail Initiative and the little chamber that did | Filed in: Hydrail, Uncategorized.by guest blogger Stan Thompson Archimedes is quoted as saying, “Give me a lever and a place to stand and I will move the earth.” Bell Telephone Laboratories gave mankind the transistor and—just as Thomas Jefferson foresaw— the free American pursuit of happiness (AKA the will to innovation) forged it into the Internet, daddy of all • Read More »
Could Russia pioneer high-speed hydrail?
December 21, 2019 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on Could Russia pioneer high-speed hydrail? | Filed in: History, Hydrail, Infrastructure, News, Political Issues.by guest blogger Stan Thompson When Russia and Japan recently exchanged econdev ideas (December 2019) at the ministerial level, two of the specifics discussed were hydrogen production and greater use of the Trans-Siberia Railway. Those two dots, connected with others, could lead to Russia leaping the high speed bump now obstructing the way to wireless fuel cell • Read More »
Hydrail versus the Tower of Babel
December 11, 2019 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on Hydrail versus the Tower of Babel | Filed in: Hydrail, Hydrogen Vehicles, Hyrail, Uncategorized.by guest blogger Stan Thompson Thank you, Bill Vantuono, for your Railway Age, November 15, 2019, introduction to a long overdue American first: San Bernardino’s history-making, Stadler-built hydrogen multiple unit or “HMU”. It’s a bittersweet debut for those of us who worked for years—beginning in 2003—to add hydrail to Kitty Hawk as a North Carolina transportation • Read More »
Redlands, California All in On Hydrail
November 24, 2019 | By Hydro Kevin Kantola | Comments Off on Redlands, California All in On Hydrail | Filed in: Hydrail.I lived in Redlands, California and its neighboring city Mentone for several years so this story hits home for me. I now live 30 minutes away so you can bet I’ll be “all aboard” when this comes to fruition. Now Let’s Talk Hydrogen Trains … Zero emission locomotives have been in operation in Asia and • Read More »
From Russia to Charlotte and back: a hydrail odyssey
November 15, 2019 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on From Russia to Charlotte and back: a hydrail odyssey | Filed in: Conferences, Fuel Cells, History, Hydrail, Hyrail.by guest blogger Stan Thompson Everything seems to have a Ukraine connection these days. Why not hydrail (H2 fuel cell rail traction)? Per Wikipedia, in 1880, several years before Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, a Ukrainian engineer named Pyotr Pirotsky introduced the world’s first electric “tram” (European for “streetcar”) in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Soon Pirotsky connected • Read More »
Hydrail, Climate Change and Rotary International
April 6, 2019 | By Hydro Kevin Kantola | Comments Off on Hydrail, Climate Change and Rotary International | Filed in: Hydrail.By guest blogger Stan Thompson Bill Thunberg and I, two of the three founders of the Mooresville Hydrail Initiative (Google it), are also members of the Mooresville NC, USA, Rotary Club. Imagine our delight when we received this month’s The Rotarian Magazine with its cover page article, “CLIMATE SOLUTIONS WITHIN OUR REACH.” In the • Read More »
Use hydrail: a plea to PR and Corp Com types
March 14, 2019 | By Hydro Kevin Kantola | Comments Off on Use hydrail: a plea to PR and Corp Com types | Filed in: Hydrail.by guest blogger Stan Thompson Fifteen years ago the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy introduced the public to the hydrail future of the railway industry in an invited article, “The Mooresville Hydrail Initiative” (February 2004: volume 29, issue 4, page 438). One main reason for the IJHE article was to establish • Read More »
Business Gets Down to Hydrail
December 3, 2018 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on Business Gets Down to Hydrail | Filed in: Competition, Conferences, Hydrail, Hydrogen Economy, Hyrail.by guest blogger, Stan Thompson When Dr. Holger Busche conceived wind turbine powered commuter trains for Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, back in 1998, he probably had a business model in mind, though he is a committed environmentalist. But by the time I presented the passenger hydrail concept to the US DOT in 2003, the environmental angle had become • Read More »
Shirtsleeves Hydrail Stations
September 26, 2018 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on Shirtsleeves Hydrail Stations | Filed in: History, Hydrail, Hydrogen Vehicles, Hyrail, Infrastructure, News, Uncategorized.by guest blogger Stan Thompson On Sunday, September 16, 2018, at Bremervörde, in the State of Niedersachsen, Germany, I boarded the first intercity hydrail train—my dream since 2003! It was Alstom’s shiny new blue Coradia iLint Hydrogen Multiple Unit light rail train, wireless electric and silent as the wind turbines on the North German horizon • Read More »