Doors closing. Next stop: hydrogen trains

Charles Calvert’s team may not have won Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ Railway Challenge, but the competition unlocked a far greater prize: the chance to build the UK’s first hydrogen-powered train. A year later, we catch up with Charles to see if he has any advice for this year's competitors...

Charles Calvert is first to admit that of all the fuels, hydrogen is the “most unloved”. 
“You have no idea how many people go on about Hindenburg,” says the PHD researcher from the University of Birmingham, referring to a fatal airship disaster that happened nearly a century ago. 

But that hasn’t stopped an ambitious project to build the UK’s first hydrogen train, which Charles believes will offer an exciting alternative to railway companies in the future. And by future, he means about a decade. 

Last year, Charles led a team of students from his university competing in the Institution’s Railway Challenge; a competition where teams design, build and operate miniature locomotives.

“It was a lot of fun,” he says. “It was so satisfying to take a group of people who had absolutely no idea how to build or operate a train and develop ourselves into a really highly-honed machine. It was great working as a team and seeing the enthusiasm.”
After the competition, Charles took a brief holiday. When he returned, much to his surprise, his boss told him they had a full-scale hydrogen train to build. 
   
“We’ve been taking the engineering we did for the competition and applying it in full scale,” he explains. 

Charles says hydrogen systems are completely closed networks, with strong fuel tanks and safe refuelling mechanisms. He believes that hydrogen hasn’t caught on yet because it’s been just far more convenient to use internal combustion engines that burn fossil fuels. Because fossil fuels are so energy dense in terms of volume and weight it means that you can pack a lot of energy into a small space, good for powering vehicles that have to travel for long distances before refuelling.

But with the rise of electric vehicles, and customers demanding cleaner energy (hydrogen has zero harmful emissions at point of use), railways will be forced to explore alternatives. And, according to him, “hydrogen fuel cells are one of the ways forward for the future of rail”. 

The full-scale prototype train – the “HydroFlex” – is due to be unveiled at the Rail Live exhibition in mid-June. It’s being built through a partnership between the University of Birmingham and leasing company Porterbrook, and is destined for commercial use as a passenger train. Charles says for students competing in this year’s Railway Challenge, his advice is not to be fixated with winning. 

“We went in with four objectives: cross the starting line, cross the finish line, be safe and have fun. I didn’t care what position we came. It’s just a number. The teams big success was gathering the support necessary from industry to allow the University of Birmingham to be a partner in building the UK’s first full scale hydrogen train.”