Severn Valley’s ground-breaking hydrogen 08 has engine removed
THE Severn Valley Railway is celebrating the completion of the latest stage of its Harrier Hydroshunter project, with the removal of the original diesel engine from a Class 08 donor shunter.
As reported in issue 280, the railway is working in partnership with the University of Birmingham and local start-up company Vanguard Sustainable Transport Solutions to carry out the UK's first-ever conversion of a diesel shunter to run on hydrogen power.
A giant 100-tonne crane was hired to lift the engine out of No. 08635 at Kidderminster diesel depot. The lift of the shunter engine came after the removal of the 34-tonne 2700hp engine from Class 50 No. 50033 Glorious, which will now have a replacement generator fitted.
The shunter project can progress to the next stage, comprising the installation of a hydrogen-battery hybrid traction system being developed at the university.
The Class 50 Association's volunteer engineering director, Tony Middleton, who worked across both engine lifts, said: “This stage of the project has been a long time in preparation, and it's given the opportunity for a number of our younger volunteers to work on an exciting and groundbreaking scheme. They've had to make a lot of preparations, stripping the components and removing the nuts and bolts.”
The original 08 engine is no longer required for the Harrier Hydroshunter.
It will be used for training and to provide spare parts for future engineering projects.
Vanguard Sustainable Transport Solutions project engineer Peter Amor said: “We're really making some fantastic progress on this project and it's thanks to the hard graft of SVR volunteers. I can't wait to continue pushing ahead with the design of the hydrogen power pack.”
After the locomotive receives its new power pack, testing is planned to take place at the SVR later this year. ➜ The SVR has released a film about the engine lifts on its official YouTube channel at https://youtu. be/GX61sdOC4Gs