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 »
Archives: Hyrail
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 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 »
United Hydrail Nations
September 17, 2014 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on United Hydrail Nations | Filed in: Fuel Cells, Hydrail, Hydrogen Economy, Hydrogen Education, Hydrogen Organizations, Hydrogen Vehicles, Hyrail, Infrastructure.by guest blogger Stan Thompson This update follows much farther behind the wonderfully successful 9th International Hydrail Conference in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany (June 2014) than I had intended. The reason is one I can’t regret: the cast of international players on the hydrail stage has grown so large, and there are so many intertwining plots, that I can hardly keep up • Read More »
Neumünster, Germany, Hosts 9th International Hydrail Conference
May 22, 2014 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on Neumünster, Germany, Hosts 9th International Hydrail Conference | Filed in: Conferences, Fuel Cells, Hydrail, Hydrogen Vehicles, Hyrail, Infrastructure, News.by guest blogger Stan Thompson Neumünster, in the Northern German State of Schleswig-Holstein, will host the Ninth International Hydrail Conference (“9IHC”) on 16-18 June this year (2014). This year’s registration details, presenters and agenda information appear on the Appalachian State University hydrail web site, http://www.hydrail.org. German support for the Hydrail Conference has proved so strong that, for the • Read More »
HYDRAIL, FRACKING AND WILLIE SUTTON
September 2, 2012 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on HYDRAIL, FRACKING AND WILLIE SUTTON | Filed in: Fuel Cells, Hydrail, Hydrogen Fuel Production, Hydrogen Fueling Stations, Hydrogen Vehicles, Hyrail, Infrastructure, Political Issues.Posted on September 2nd, 2012 By guest blogger, Stan Thompson According to Wikipedia, Willie Sutton claimed never to have said the words that elevated him in history from a habitual law-breaker to authorship of Sutton’s Law. Sutton was a notoriously successful bank robber—the original “Slick Willie.” His notoriety earned him a famous, though apocryphal, interview • Read More »