Veg Oil-powered DBC ‘shed’
FOLLOWING ON from load bank trials using a Class 67, DB Cargo has tested the use of hydro-treated vegetable oil to power one of its Class 66s (66150). The loco was used to haul a train of longwelded rail from British Steel’s Scunthorpe site to Network Rail’s depot at Eastleigh on December 16, 2020. On December 21 the loco, top and tailed with 66085, was used to power the 6W98 St Erth to Westbury Down Yard engineers train.
The freight operator has estimated that replacing diesel with 100% renewable HVO has the potential to reduce a train’s carbon emissions by as much as 90%. DB Cargo’s Head of Logistics
Sales, Roger Neary, said: “Rail freight is already a much greener alternative to road haulage, so to reduce our carbon footprint even further will, I hope, make businesses re-evaluate their own transport strategies. If they want to reduce their own carbon emissions, then rail freight is the obvious choice over road.”