Without the wires above them, electric trains are powerless to operate. That remains the problem for the zero-emissions ambitions of rail freight. A Swiss company with a British base has laterally thought through the problem, and might just be ready to swing into action.
A little over three years ago, a representative cross-section of the rail freight, logistics and shipping industries assembled in the English town of Wellingborough to see a breakthrough in action. Approaching, from the electrified main line, was a loaded aggregates train. It slowly pulled up to the buffer stops, under a temporary but substantial overhead wiring system.
The train came to a halt and then, under instruction, Ms Shan Liu, who was covering the event for RailFreight.com, powered down the 25kV installation and, to a round of applause, set in motion Britain’s first retractable catenary, which swung clear of the train. A skilled operator promptly began unloading bulk aggregates from the open top railcars using a material handler with a grab – and lived to tell the tale. If not the answer to every situation, it was a retractable feather in the cap for British innovation.
“Wellingborough was a temporary demonstration, but the concept is still very much alive and progressing,” said Noel Dolphin, the director of the UK arm of Swiss engineering specialists Furrer+Frey. “Retractable catenary as a solution is very long-term in the UK, he says, making reference to the discontinuous nature of main line electrification – an issue which precludes the installation of last mile solutions, even those as innovative as this.
Despite all the applause, the lack of substantive wiring throughout the British network has been a hindrance. Even the Midland Main Line, from which the demonstration train operated, is still only partially electrified. It doesn’t yet provide a wired connection from London to Leicester, Derby, Nottingham or Sheffield – all significant freight markets.
Even the rail operator that partnered with Furrer+Frey for that demonstration, GB Railfreight, has bitten the bullet and leased a powerful and versatile new fleet of bi-mode freight locomotives, capable of bridging the gap for themselves. The Stadler-built and designated Class 99 was revealed recently at GBRf operational headquarters in Peterborough, ironically only twenty miles from Wellingborough but without an electrified rail connection between the two locations.
Export applications
Furrer+Frey have been frustrated in their British ambitions, but they have found niche implementations abroad for their retractable catenary, and developments inspired by that Wellingborough demonstration. So far, no takers among the rail yards and container docks of Britain. “We have significant installations in the maintenance depots for Eurostar at Temple Mills and at the Hitachi passenger train facility at Bounds Green [both in London],” says Noel Dolphin. The Eurostar depot is a particularly impressive array of eight roads, all with retractable systems, totalling 1.5km under the conductors.
For freight, the technology has found a revenue-earning installation much further afield. “We have installed a kilometre-long set-up in India, serving a double-stack capable intermodal terminal,” explains Dolphin. “That’s not to say we have not had interest from the UK. We’ve made a number of proposals to depots around the country. The issue, though, remains linked to infill electrification on the main network.”
WorldCargo News has learned that some candidate intermodal terminals have been actively considering the concept. DP World’s London Gateway has been named, not least because the terminal is adjacent to an already electrified main line, and, as reported elsewhere in this issue, the port operator has a keen decarbonisation agenda. Variations on the technology – vertically mobile catenary, for example, to allow oversize loads to pass beneath, could have wider applications. For example, India’s double-stack intermodal trains could cross over electrified passenger tracks if the catenary were upwardly mobile. Other freight-centric railroad systems would certainly note that benefit.
From the point of view of the industry’s representative body in the UK, the Rail Freight Group, there is support for the initiative. RFG says it welcomes any innovation that supports the decarbonised operation of the freight railway. “Ideally, we would like to see electrification rolled out to cover much more of the network,” says RFG. “The Class 99 has been developed in response to the limited coverage of Overhead Line Electrification (OLE) in the UK. Electric traction offers better [performance] and would permit more freight to run alongside passenger services on a busy network.”
Research spin-offs
The technology has spurred on development in the UK. Furrer+Frey have installed research rigs at the GCRE (the Global Centre of Rail Excellence) near Port Talbot in South Wales. “We’ve been looking at ways to reduce the cost of overhead line equipment, which stems from the demonstration at Wellingborough,” said an upbeat Noel Dolphin, who still sees much cause for optimism. “There are also implementations where the system could be adapted for difficult to wire locations – such as low bridges that would otherwise require expensive rebuilding.”
“The system has definite merit as an installation in new build facilities,” said the RFG. “The recent opening of Northampton Gateway, the new and longer terminal capacity at Daventry, and the investment at London Gateway are all good examples of this. Further roll out of electrification on the UK network to ensure end-to-end low carbon operation would then provide the incentive for the private sector to invest in further infrastructure within their own estates.”
A retractable catenary is not going to be a solution that works for intermodal terminals that have been designed around widespan gantry cranes with no provision (such as shunting engines) to move rail cars independently of mainline traction. Noel Dolphin, however, sees a future for the Furrer+Frey system, and even benefits in the typically British reserve in implementing electrification. “The retractable conductor concept is still a live proposal,” he said. “We’ve been approached by ports and other terminals, to allow wires to move out of the way so that plant equipment, such as reach stackers, can cross lines that will be electrified in a port or terminal. Also, we’ve been looking at a case abroad where non-electrified double-stacked freight lines intersect with electrified passenger lines. There is still interest around Britain. In the long term, there is a pipeline of work to be followed up.” Those retractable conductor wires could yet swing into action.
*This story first appeared in the September print issue of WorldCargo News