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 »
Archives: hydrail
HYDRAIL 2012: THE BIRMINGHAM U.K. CONFERENCE
June 11, 2012 | By Stan Thompson | 1 Comment | Filed in: Hydrail, Hydrogen Vehicles, Hyrail, Infrastructure.By guest blogger, Stan Thompson The Centre for Railway Research and Education at the University of Birmingham, UK, hosts this year’s International Hydrail Conference (IHC) on 3 and 4 July and the trend is clearly toward putting hydrogen on the main line. Hosting the Hydrail Conference in the UK was the idea of U. Birmingham • Read More »
UK Hydrail Conference Date Change Now July 3 – 4, 2012
February 14, 2012 | By Stan Thompson | 2 Comments | Filed in: Conferences, Hydrail, Hyrail, Infrastructure, News.by guest blogger Stan Thompson The 7th International Hydrail Conference (“7IHC”) will be held one week later than originally planned so that conferees at an important German rail conference can attend both events. During the 20th century, coal-fired steam locomotives gave way to diesel and external electric traction power. Now, in the 21st, diesel and • Read More »
HYDRAIL HISTORY: RIDE THE TRAIN IN SPAIN
December 8, 2011 | By Stan Thompson | 1 Comment | Filed in: Advocates, Fuel Cells, Hydrail, News.by guest blogger Stan Thompson Unless you have access to Dr. Who’s TARDIS or H. G. Wells’ Time Machine, you’ll have to depend on old texts to envision William Murdoch’s 1784 steam locomotive debut in Britain or Peter Cooper’s Tom Thumb, the first locomotive to run in America. But if you can afford an air • Read More »
Hydrail: Spain Leaps Ahead!
October 10, 2011 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on Hydrail: Spain Leaps Ahead! | Filed in: Hydrail, Hydrogen Vehicles, News.By guest blogger Stan Thompson It’s way too easy to miss really important events in the history of hydrogen railroading if they don’t contain the magic searchable word “hydrail”. I missed a huge one last month: the demonstration of Europe’s (and perhaps the world’s) first hydrail train—or maybe the first hydrolley—now planned for regular passenger • Read More »
University of Birmingham, UK, To Host 2012 Hydrail Conference
August 16, 2011 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on University of Birmingham, UK, To Host 2012 Hydrail Conference | Filed in: Hydrail, Hydrogen Economy, Infrastructure.By guest blogger Stan Thompson The University of Birmingham, UK, will host the next International Hydrail Conference there in the summer of 2012 in cooperation with Appalachian State University. Dates and details will be available in late September, 2011, on the hydrail web site of the Energy Center at “App State” in Boone, North Carolina: • Read More »
Hydrail: Putting the Car Before the (Iron) Horse
June 24, 2011 | By Stan Thompson | 2 Comments | Filed in: Fuel Cells, Hydrail, Hydrogen Cars, Hydrogen Economy.by guest blogger Stan Thompson Perhaps the single greatest impediment to the advent of the hydrogen economy has been the media-led insistence that hydrogen fuel cell technology is an automotive design experiment that has not yet been made to work. The ubiquity issue—the controlling obstacle unique to the car application—is never examined. Mention hydrogen and • Read More »
HYDRAIL AND THE GREAT COPPER RIP-OFF
May 2, 2011 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on HYDRAIL AND THE GREAT COPPER RIP-OFF | Filed in: Fuel Cells, Hydrail, Infrastructure.by guest columnist Stan Thompson You are so unlikely to believe this that I’ll let Google tell you; enter this search argument in your browser: copper + church + (steal OR stolen OR theft) As of this writing, that entry nets well over ten million Google responses and over five million from Yahoo. An EPA • Read More »
Hydrail Economics: Consider the Alternative
March 28, 2011 | By Stan Thompson | Comments Off on Hydrail Economics: Consider the Alternative | Filed in: Hydrail, Hydrogen Fuel Production, Infrastructure.by guest blogger Stan Thompson When asked “How’s your wife?” Henny Youngman famously quipped, “Compared to what?” Lately I’ve been conflicted by the flurry of interest in High Speed Rail and the several states whose governors have “just said ‘no thank you.’” My hunch is that they may have made the right call for the • Read More »
Hydrail: A Tale of Two Metals
February 24, 2011 | By Stan Thompson | 3 Comments | Filed in: Hydrail, Hydrogen Economy.by guest blogger Stan Thompson When the history of railway evolution in the first half of the twenty-first century is written, it may largely be a tale of two metals and their respective economics. Copper and hydrogen are both essential to the long-term economical delivery of electric power: copper to stationary applications and hydrogen to • Read More »