If we’re going to create a railway for the 21st Century, it makes sense to equip it with rolling stock to suit.
We’ve long trumpeted the fact that the Ivanhoeline snakes its way through the beautiful National Forest – a visionary project that seeks to plant 20 million trees across an area once ravaged by open cast coal mining.
To compliment this transformative project, we’ve got really hooked on the idea of hydrogen powered trains.
Thes have been in development for some time. The concept is that hydrogen is stored under pressure within the vehicle instead of diesel. The hydrogen is then run through a fuel cell which creates electricity. The train thus becomes and electric train, but without the necessity to build overhead gantries which are extremely costly.
Initial trials show that these trains can be extremely quiet – a significant benefit now that many houses have been built backing onto the line.
We’re talking to rail operators and research groups about this concept and think the Ivanhoe line could be a great test bed for such technology.