Pan Up Ian Walmsley
38 Modern Railways April 2019 http://www.modern-railways.com
A 90-tonne beast nears completion at Britain’s last serious loco manufacturer – Clayton
I
f you had to bet on which of the
Modernisation Plan manufacturers
would still be building locomotives
nearly 60 years later, you probably
wouldn’t have gone for Clayton
Equipment Ltd. In the April 2015
Modern Railways I wrote about the
14 loco conversions from diesel to
battery for London Underground.
Since then, along with a steady trickle
of mining locos, there have been
seven 40-tonne locos for Crossrail
and a simply amazing Channel
Tunnel works train used for installing
a France to England power cable.
Think Network Rail’s HOPS train
but designed and built in one year
and doing the job as designed.THE BIG ONE
While the aforementioned CB40
(Clayton Battery 40 tonnes) was
impressive enough, meet the new
CBH90, at least you will if you are
near the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway
when the trials start in a few weeks
time. This one, hopefully the first
of many, is for the rather different
industrial rail market. While I won’t go
through the specification, here are
the key performance requirements:
n Long idle periods;
n Low-speed, high torque;
n Minimal maintenance;
n Long life – avoid obsolescence;
n Highly reliable;
n Cheap to buy and run.Like a Rail Accident Investigation
Branch officer, most industrial
locos spend many hours doing
nothing waiting for something
to happen. Typically long trains
will be loaded while the loco idles
away, turning fuel into pollution,
and wearing out the engine just
to keep the cab warm. When the
time comes, the CBH90 (Clayton
Battery Hybrid 90 tonnes) has to shift
3,000 tonnes – not very far, or very
fast, but it absolutely has to work.POWER LEAD
What huge engine does this
job? A 55kW Deutz machine
about the size of a van engine.For comparison, the engine in a
Class 68 produces 2,800kW to give
a tractive effort of 317kN, while the
CBH90 gives 300kN. If you don’t like
engineering numbers: it will move
about the same load with an engine
50 times smaller. Of course it won’t
go as fast, but it doesn’t need to.
The trick is a socking big 16-tonne
battery, with a capacity of 524kWh,
split into two containers to help
weight distribution. For a loco not
concerned with Network Rail’s
dislike of anything heavier than a
sack truck, weight is good; it is what
allows the power to be put down.
The underframe and even the
bogie frames are made of massive,GOIN’ LOCO
Down in Burton-on-Trent
038-039_MR_Apr 2019_pan up.indd 38 12/03/2019 15:03