The Railpower GG20B ''Green Goat'' is a low-emissions diesel hybrid

switcher locomotive A switcher locomotive (American English), shunter locomotive (British English), station pilot (British English), or shifter locomotive (Pennsylvania Railroad terminology) is a locomotive used for maneuvering railway vehicles over short distanc ...

built by Railpower Technologies Corp. It is powered by a single

Caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder ...

C9 six cylinder inline engine developing , which is also connected to a large battery bank where both sources combine for a total power output of . To date, there have been more than 50 GG20B diesel-electric hybrid switchers manufactured since their first introduction in 2004.

Original Buyers

Fuel-cell testbed

BNSF Railway BNSF Railway is the largest freight railroad in the United States. One of six North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 36,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and over 8,000 locomotives. It has three Transcontinental railroad, transcontine ...

and Vehicle Projects converted a GG20B to an experimental testbed, for the use of

hydrogen Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and abundance of the chemical elements, most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all baryon, normal matter ...

fuel cell A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen fuel, hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most bat ...

s. The new locomotive is designated HH20B. The locomotive was publicly demonstrated for the first time on June 29, 2009, at

Topeka, Kansas Topeka ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Shawnee County. It is along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, in northeastern Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2020 cen ...

. The locomotive, BNSF 1205, was originally built in 1957 as

Canadian Pacific The Canadian Pacific Railway () , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...

8637 (renumbered 1544 in the 1980s), a GMD GP9 locomotive. In 2006, it was rebuilt into a GG20B for the Canadian Pacific, but was not delivered, due to the cancellation of the order. It was sold to BNSF in 2008, and shipped to the railroad's shops at

for conversion. The diesel generator set was removed, and the fuel cell power unit was installed in its place. Hydrogen storage is in a set of tanks installed in a heavily vented enclosure on top of the locomotive's

long hood The long hood of a hood unit-style diesel locomotive is, as the name implies, the longer of the two hoods (narrower sections of the locomotive body in front and behind of the cab) on a locomotive, particularly American-type freight locomotives. ...

, above the batteries. To date, it is the largest land vehicle on earth to be powered exclusively by hydrogen fuel cells. In 2023, the locomotive (without its hydrogen components) was donated to the

Oklahoma Railroad Museum Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked state in the South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northeast, Arkansas to the east, New Mexico to the west, and Colo ...

, which plans on using it as a

control car A control car, cab car (North America), control trailer, or driving trailer (UK, Ireland, Australia and India) is a non-powered rail vehicle from which a train can be operated. As dedicated vehicles or regular passenger cars, they have one or t ...

and for electricity generation on the end of its excursion trains.

References

B-B locomotives Railpower locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 2004 Diesel–electric locomotives of the United States EPA Tier 2-compliant locomotives of the United States Standard-gauge locomotives of the United States Standard-gauge locomotives of Canada Shunting locomotives {{Diesel-loco-stub

Original Buyers

Fuel-cell testbed

See also

References