Archives: hydrail

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 »

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 »

Eleventh International Hydrail Conference: a first look at the program

June 15, 2016 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on Eleventh International Hydrail Conference: a first look at the program | Filed in: Hydrail, Hydrogen Economy, Hydrogen Organizations, News, Uncategorized.

by guest blogger Stan Thompson This year’s “11-IHC” is the first event since the International Hydrail Conference series began in 2005 when a major focus of the agenda will be on hydrogen fuel cell passenger railway equipment already being manufactured and in service. (see http://www.hydrail.org) China now has two hydrail trams in production. One is • Read More »

Hydrail Conferences: “Mission 1” Accomplished!

July 27, 2015 | By Stan Thompson | 1 Comment | Filed in: Conferences, Hydrail, Hydrogen Economy, Infrastructure.

by guest blogger Stan Thompson The Tenth International Hydrail Conference (“10-IHC”) came home to Mooresville, North Carolina, on June 22-23 and it was a resounding success for a number of reasons. Our twenty presenters were a delightful mix of pros from previous IHCs, academics, railroad professionals, VIPs and Brad Read, President of TIG/m, who built the hydrail • Read More »

Yes, Google, there is a hydrail

June 12, 2015 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on Yes, Google, there is a hydrail | Filed in: Fuel Cells, Hydrail, Hydrogen Economy, Hydrogen Vehicles, Infrastructure, News.

by guest blogger Stan Thompson Dear Google: “hydrail” is really a word, and has been since at least February of 2004 when it appeared in an invited article in the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (volume 29, issue 4, page 438). It was used as early as 2003 in an invited presentation at the US DOT’s • Read More »

Hydrail in Germany: another welcome first

February 28, 2015 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on Hydrail in Germany: another welcome first | Filed in: Fuel Cells, Hydrail, Hydrogen Vehicles, Hyrail, Infrastructure.

by guest blogger Stan Thompson About 12 years ago, when I first became interested in what’s now called hydrail (hybrid hydrogen fuel cell and battery railway traction), I caught a glimmer of the idea online from Germany in the State of Schleswig-Holstein. Someone there had seen that wireless electric trains could be powered by wind turbines via hydrogen • Read More »

President Putin prods hydrail ahead

October 18, 2014 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on President Putin prods hydrail ahead | Filed in: Fuel Cells, Hydrail, Infrastructure, News.

by guest blogger Stan Thompson By fiddling with his oil faucets and natural gas valves, Vladimir Putin may be having the same unintended acceleration effect on Europe’s diesel-to-hydrail transition that John L. Lewis had on the coal-to-diesel transition in the USA during the last century. Recently I’ve heard two ambassadors from European countries explaining to American audiences what • Read More »

High Speed Rail Celebration at Hydrail’s Second Home

October 3, 2014 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on High Speed Rail Celebration at Hydrail’s Second Home | Filed in: Conferences, Hydrail, Hydrogen Education.

by Guest Blogger Stan Thompson For three days this December, the 8th, 9th and 10th, the University of Birmingham UK will host the 50th anniversary celebration of the birth of High Speed Rail. The blessed event occurred in Japan in 1964 with the opening of Tokyo’s Shinkansen line. Many of the top experts in this most fascinating (and literally “dashing”) element of • Read More »