USA: Sierra Northern Railway has acquired the assets of diesel-battery hybrid and genset locomotive supplier RailPower, which it will use to develop hydrogen locomotives for short line and industrial applications.
SNR is the freight division of the privately owned Sierra Railroad Co, which in turn holds a majority stake in Sierra Energy Corp. SEC has developed proprietary FastOx technology which uses heat, steam and oxygen to break down waste to produce hydrogen. SNR has designed and built a prototype hydrogen fuel cell loco based on a RailPower genset donor, and owns the largest RailPower fleet in the USA.
On February 7 it said it plans to build hydrogen locomotives based on RailPower’s proven platform, initially targeting the 260 locomotives used by short line railways in California.
RailPower has previously produced approximately 190 locomotives, including 55 GG20B diesel-battery hybrid shunting locos, 116 RP20BD genset locomotives and other models including the GG10B, GK10B, RP14BD and RP20SD for industrial, shunting, short line and port operations.
