A hydrogen powered shunter project was shown off to the press at Severn Valley Railway, at there Kidderminster station.
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00:00The first thing for us really is that we don't see the Severn Bay Railway as just being a heritage railway on its own.
00:09We very much believe that heritage railways and this railway are part of the rail industry nationally.
00:15And those of you who are close to what we do will know that, for example, we are the only heritage railway in the UK
00:23and we were the only heritage railway in the UK during the course of our project.
00:27And we also have a very close relationship with many other rail industry partners and colleagues and organisations.
00:33And I really do see this railway being part of the main national rail industry.
00:39So we're here with the Severn Valley Railway in Kidderminster and introduce yourselves gents.
00:43So Gus Dunstan, Managing Director of the Severn Valley Railway.
00:46And Rob Gibson, CEO of Vanguard Sustainable Transport Solutions.
00:49You're not just going for a funky new green just to, you know...
00:52That's the trend at the minute, are you? What's going on? What's special about this train, Gus, behind us?
00:56So what's special about it is this is a 65-year-old original British Railway shunting locomotive which was diesel-powered,
01:03which we have been working with Rob and the Vanguard team over the last four years to convert into a hydrogen battery-powered vehicle.
01:10So it's really exciting for us.
01:12Why? Why are you converting it to hydrogen?
01:16It's all about the environment, I guess, isn't it? Hence the green.
01:19It's about innovation and the evolution of technology, really.
01:24And we're conscious of the fact that the railway, like all railways, we need to look at a sustainable environmental footprint.
01:32So this is a possible replacement for some of the diesel-powered vehicles that we've got.
01:39And Vanguard, you guys have kind of been in charge of making that happen, I guess.
01:44So Vanguard turns five in February, and for four years we've been working with SBR on this.
01:49Our business, we specialise in innovation and decarbonisation of rail.
01:53And this is a prime example of the kind of projects that we can do and we will carry on to do and get bigger and bigger as time goes on.
02:00Yeah. And when we think of Severn Valley, we think of coal going in the fire.
02:05But it's not just the Heritage Railway, are they? You touched on that on your speech.
02:09But you're very forward-thinking, really, here, aren't you?
02:12Well, we do. We try to be. I think it's important for a railway like this to be sustainable in the widest sense.
02:17We have the heritage operation of steam and diesel locomotives at the core, of course, for our businesses.
02:22But that in itself will not cover the operating costs of a 16-mile railway like this.
02:29So it's important that we know our broader thinking and our commercial outlook.
02:34So we work very closely with a lot of partners around the National Rail Industry Network, Vanguard being one of those key partners.
02:41And for this railway to succeed and be resilient and keep going into the future, it's really, really important.
02:48We've got a broad range of activities that sustain it financially.
02:52And you use these shunters a lot, don't you?
02:54I mean, for anyone who's going to watch this and think, oh, no, I'm not going to have my steam coming out of my trains when I pop down.
03:00That's not quite the case, is it?
03:02No, it's not about that. I mean, the shunting locos are used really to facilitate the maintenance of our fleet of carriages.
03:07We have 60-plus passenger-carrying carriages on this railway, all of which need to be maintained properly.
03:13And in order to get them in and out of the maintenance shed, these shunting locomotives are essential to that.
03:18That's how we move them.
03:20And, yeah, we're very busy on the Kiddermister site maintaining our carriages.
03:24And we hope that this vehicle will prove itself more than able to cope with the duties that currently we're using the diesel shunter fleets to achieve.
03:32So it will reduce the amount of diesel that we use, ultimately.
03:35Well done, gents. Great project.
03:37So go on, sir, what's your name?
03:38I'm Callum.
03:39Hello, Callum. So we're inside the engine, the driver's seat.
03:42How is it different, then, because it's powered by hydrogen? Obviously, this is still a working process. We appreciate that.
03:47So from a driver's perspective, the only things that have changed are these control panels.
03:52Essentially, the aim throughout this project has been to keep it, from a driver's point of view, the same, as much as the same as the previous Class 08.
04:02So effectively, we've got some warning indicators for several leaks and things that we might want to make the driver aware of.
04:10We've got some indications of what the hybrid system's doing.
04:13So, for example, the battery state of charge and the amount of hydrogen we've got in the tanks.
04:17And then here is what we should be using in service, is an on-off switch for the hybrid system.
04:22A switch to allow us to operate on battery-only mode or hybrid battery and hydrogen fuel cell.
04:29And we've got some indications to show us, again, the status of the hybrid system.
04:33But beyond that, it's driven by the same power handle as a diesel Class 08, and the brakes remain exactly the same.