Hydrogen Cars, Vehicles and Infrastructure
Features information on hydrail or hydrogen railway trains including hydrolley (hydrogen trolley) and other H2-powered rail vehicles.
A quiet yet transformative shift in American rail travel is underway in the Inland Empire of California. With a distinctive whirr instead of a diesel roar, the Zemu, California’s first hydrogen fuel cell passenger train, has officially begun revenue service. This landmark deployment on the nine-mile route between San Bernardino and Redlands is far more […]
Continue ReadingCanadian 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 […]
Continue Readingby guest blogger Stan Thompson updated 12/21/2020 In the late 1800s Nikola Tesla took Thomas Edison’s DC and alternated the polarity back and forth so that its voltage could be stepped up by a transformer and hauled much further by overcoming electrical resistance. Way off in the distance, at the user end, another transformer stepped […]
Continue Readingby 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 […]
Continue Readingby guest blogger Stan Thompson The world may little note nor long remember the routine June 8, 2020, press release by Germany’s venerable Thyssenkrupp industrial giant. But to me it is a transition marker that’s profound in the same way that the tiny band of iridium and ash around the world marks the cretaceous-tertiary boundary […]
Continue Readingby guest blogger Stan Thompson Many of us who saw the hydrogen transition coming over two decades ago are frustrated by writers today who feel obliged to apologize for the vast amount of hydrogen that goes into fertilizer and petrochemicals. Many of these folks probably feel they have to mention it because so many have […]
Continue Readingby 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 […]
Continue Readingby 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 […]
Continue Readingby guest blogger, Stan Thompson Let’s limit the damage to hydrogen progress caused by “friendly fire.” Good reportage, scholarship and fair play do not require that every article point out that most hydrogen comes from extracted carbon. It’s true, it’s undeniable—but it’s totally irrelevant. The vast amounts of hydrogen produced from hydrocarbons to make petrochemicals, […]
Continue ReadingI 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 […]
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