INNOTRANS: Nevomo has partnered with SNCF’s Captrain Deutschland freight business to jointly put forward an idea to use Nevomo’s MagRail Booster product ‘in a real environment’, the technology company told Railway Gazette International at InnoTrans. The trials would take place at an industrial site in Germany, with the aim to start next year. Captrain already undertakes shunting work at the location.
‘We have just announced here at InnoTrans our first project for what we hope will be a deep co-operation with Captrain Germany. It will be our first project paid for by a customer’, said Michael Schultz-Wildelau, Chief Business Development Officer of Nevomo.
Technology company Nevomo has been testing its MagRail Booster concept for retrofitting existing freight wagons to enable linear motor propulsion.
The aim is to provide faster acceleration and additional power on steep gradients and to enable electric operation through tunnels which lack the clearances for overhead electrification equipment. Nevomo says single MagRail Booster wagons would be able to operate independently without being connected to a locomotive.
Former DB executive Schultz-Wildelau added that Nevomo had revised its approach to mounting magnets on wagon bogies with the hope of reducing the burden of technical approvals for the technology. The company announced the successful completion of tests in September 2023 to demonstrate the potential for passive levitation of vehicles on existing railway infrastructure.
