by guest blogger Stan Thompson Last Thursday (10 May 2018), Choe San-Hun wrote in the New York Times that, during their recent historic encounter, South Korean President Moon Jae-in handed North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un a “USB drive” containing an infrastructure vision including railway modernization. Mr. Choe does not mention hydrogen fuel cell railways but, • Read More »
Archives: Infrastructure
First presentation ride aboard Alstom’s German hydrail train
April 15, 2018 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on First presentation ride aboard Alstom’s German hydrail train | Filed in: Fuel Cells, History, Hydrail, Hydrogen Economy, Infrastructure, News.by guest blogger Stan Thompson A major milestone in railway history was passed on April 13, 2018, when Alstom Transport’s Coradia iLint hydrail [hydrogen fuel cell rail] train made a “presentation ride” from Wiesbaden to Frankfurt, in the federal state of Hesse, Germany. From my point of view it was a bittersweet occasion for two • Read More »
Hydrail Transition: The Catenary versus the Hindenburg
February 12, 2018 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on Hydrail Transition: The Catenary versus the Hindenburg | Filed in: Advocates, Hydrail, Hydrogen Safety, Infrastructure, Myths.by Guest Blogger Stan Thompson A headline in the January 2018 online issue of Britain’s Institution of Mechanical Engineers publication is the latest hydrail transition landmark: Transport Secretary calls for hydrogen trains Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has said the introduction of hydrogen-powered trains is “a priority” for Britain’s railways. The article by Amit Katwala goes • Read More »
Hydrail provenance: Thanks, James Neal !
June 21, 2017 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on Hydrail provenance: Thanks, James Neal ! | Filed in: Conferences, Fuel Cells, Hydrail, Infrastructure.by guest blogger, Stan Thompson The Twelfth International Hydrail Conference next week (27-28 June 2017) in Graz, Austria, will be very different from the first of its kind in Charlotte NC, back in 2005. To begin with, our secondary objective now is to integrate the efforts of companies like Alstom Transport and China Railway Rolling-stock • Read More »
12th International Hydrail Conference: 27-28 June, 2017
May 17, 2017 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on 12th International Hydrail Conference: 27-28 June, 2017 | Filed in: Conferences, Fuel Cells, Hydrogen Economy, Hyrail, Infrastructure, News.Graz, Austria — 27-28 June, 2017 by guest blogger, Stan Thompson It’s been a dozen years since former Mooresville, NC, USA, Mayor Bill Thunberg, Appalachian State University Research Anaylst, Jason W. Hoyle and I first undertook to midwife hydrogen fuel cell based railway traction into being. Our goal was mostly environmental but we also had a • Read More »
Hydrail: A Pullet Surprise
April 13, 2017 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on Hydrail: A Pullet Surprise | Filed in: Hydrail, Hydrogen Economy, Hydrogen Vehicles, Infrastructure, News.by guest blogger Stan Thompson If anyone out there is a friend of CNN’s Nadine Schmidt, please do five things: Buy Nadine a really nice steak dinner! Thank her for her excellent segment on hydrail April 12 (http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/12/technology/germany-hydrogen-powered-train/). Give her my eternal thanks for exhuming perhaps the deepest—and most regrettably—buried environmental story of the 21st century. Tell her about • Read More »
Hydrail at Davos: the “Hydrogen Council” on-track
January 23, 2017 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on Hydrail at Davos: the “Hydrogen Council” on-track | Filed in: Hydrail, Hydrogen Aircraft, Hydrogen Economy, Infrastructure, Myths.by guest blogger, Stan Thompson Media covering the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week missed one of the biggest stories there. The new Hydrogen Council announced at the Forum included Alstom Transport, the Paris-based train builder that’s sold 40-50 hydrail trains to four German states. Last year the German Federal Ministry of Transport published an • Read More »
Hydrail Trains Are Running Too Late: Here’s Why
October 31, 2016 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on Hydrail Trains Are Running Too Late: Here’s Why | Filed in: Advocates, Hydrail, Hydrogen Economy, Infrastructure, Myths, News.by guest blogger Stan Thompson It’s been 18 years since Dr. Holger Busche proposed that German electric passenger trains could run on wind energy carried on board as hydrogen. Once pointed out, it was an obvious thing to pursue; but the first German hydrail train won’t go into service until late next year. The impediment hasn’t • Read More »
Hydrail’s “Golden Spike” moment: Berlin, 2016
October 12, 2016 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on Hydrail’s “Golden Spike” moment: Berlin, 2016 | Filed in: Conferences, Fuel Cells, Hydrail, Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Jobs, Hydrogen Economy, Infrastructure, Political Issues.by guest blogger, Stan Thompson Hydrail is the term of art for electrifying railways wirelessly by storing electrical energy onboard as hydrogen and reconverting it, via fuel cells, as needed to power electric traction motors. In Berlin, Germany, around noon on September 20, 2016, hydrail had its moment in history, reminiscent of May 10, 1869, at Promontory Point, • Read More »
Schleswig-Holstein, Germany: Big-Picture Hydrail
June 21, 2016 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on Schleswig-Holstein, Germany: Big-Picture Hydrail | Filed in: Hydrail, Infrastructure.by guest blogger Stan Thompson 21 June, 2016: Today, Eva Grey, writing in Railway-Technology.com, described the quintessential model indicating where hydrail (hydrogen fuel cell railway) technology is headed. In her story, “German state thrusts hydrogen-powered hydrail into the spotlight,” Ms. Grey breaks the story of plans by the State of Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany to convert • Read More »