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March 2022
Complied by Julie Sneider, Senior Associate Editor
Brookville started 2022 with a new contract from a longtime customer: South Florida Regional Transportation Authority (SFRTA), which operates commuter railroad Tri-Rail in south Florida. SFRTA contracted Brookville to assess its fleet of BL36PH Eagle locomotives for major deck component overhauls.
Brookville originally delivered the authority’s first unit for Tri-Rail service in 2013. Almost 10 years later, the Eagle locomotives are due for some overhaul work to ensure high reliability for the future, Brookville officials said in an email.
The Eagle is a conventional DC-traction passenger locomotive equipped with a separate head-end power for the coach cars. For operations that don’t surpass 90 mph, a Tier 4 Eagle locomotive is an ideal solution and can save millions of dollars compared with the price of higher-speed PRIIA locomotives, Brookville officials said.
Progress Rail continues to repower and modernize freight and transit customers’ locomotives. The company offers a range of options, from a rebuild-in-kind to a full engine to a control system and traction system upgrades.
Progress Rail’s workshops are staffed by personnel serving in a variety of functions, including engineering, quality, project management and skilled labor. The company offers solutions and collaboration models for customers who choose to modernize their own locomotives with Progress Rail kits and engineering.
Some recent modernization programs include F40PH-3, F40PHM-3 and GP38-3 locomotives. By upgrading electrical and mechanical systems, Progress Rail can extend a locomotive’s life by 10 years or more, company officials said. Many repower upgrades to locomotive models such as the F59PH, SD70MACH and F59PHI can help the units meet EPA Tier 3 emissions performance while improving reliability and maximizing fuel economy, they said.
As part of a recently announced contract with Amtrak, Siemens Mobility is developing a new trainset concept featuring a hybrid battery car to accompany its long-distance Charger, the ALC-42E.
The new Charger engine will be coupled with a battery car to provide emissions-free operations in areas that don’t allow diesel operations — most notably in and out of New York City’s busy Penn Station, Siemens officials explained in an email.
The combination of the hybrid battery car with a locomotive will be the first of its kind in the United States, they added.
The battery technology employed already has debuted in Austria, receiving approval for passenger transit use in 2019. It’s also being deployed on other routes across central Europe.
Because zero emissions occur when operating in battery mode, environmental benefits are realized by adding clean power to trains and reducing greenhouse gas and other emissions, Siemens officials said.
In addition, the new trainsets allow for remote monitoring and fully integrated digital diagnostics to increase reliability and availability, and provide predictive maintenance.
The hybrid capability is an important step in transitioning non-electrified rail systems to alternative propulsion technologies and realizing rail’s sustainability potential, Siemens officials said.
Wabtec is pioneering the application of battery technology for heavy-haul locomotives, which typically can pull a freight train loaded with 5,000 tons of cargo. In 2020, the company built the FLXdrive™ locomotive, the world’s first 100% battery electric locomotive, Wabtec officials said. The locomotive features a train energy management system with about 20,000 battery cells.
Wabtec now is extending the battery technology to the transit industry through a diesel battery hybrid work locomotive for metropolitan transit authorities. The combination of a Tier 4 engine with battery technology could reduce overall particulate emissions by as much as 93% compared with older work locomotives, Wabtec officials said.
The company is also collaborating with General Motors to develop and commercialize GM’s Ultium battery technology and HYDROTEC hydrogen fuel cell systems for use in Wabtec locomotives.
By working with GM, Wabtec aims to accelerate the rail industry’s path to decarbonization and zero-emission locomotives.
Email comments or questions to julie.sneider@tradepress.com.
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