UP "goes green" in a big way, orders 121 switchers

Aided by $81 million in TERP (Texas Emissions Reduction Plan) grants administered by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Union Pacific has awarded contracts to two builders--RailPower Technologies and Wabtec Corp. subsidiary Motive Power Industries--for 111 low-emission, low-horsepower locomotives. By mid-2007, UP plans to deploy 56 units in Houston, 46 in Dallas/Fort Worth, and nine in San Antonio. The locomotives are expected to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by up to 80% while using as much as 40% less fuel.

MotivePower's share of the UP order is for 13 MP20B-3 switchers, which are powered by 2,000-hp Caterpillar engines. while RailPower gets the bulk: 98 RP Series road switchers, consisting of 80 triple-genset (generator-set) units and 18 twin-genset units. The gensets are 700-hp diesel engines (similar to those used in over-the-road trucks) turning a generator that supplies power to the traction motors. The twin-genset locomotives are hybrids. operating on the diesel engines and a battery bank for additional power. UP began evaluating genset locomotives in 2002.

The 98 locomotives give RailPower a backlog of some 175 units and "fills our production schedule through 2006 and part way into 2007," according to President and CEO Jim Maier. The relatively new RP20 Series "was specifically designed to reduce high fuel usage in road and branch line switching operations, where locomotives use up to three times the amount consumed by yard switchers." RailPower is best known for its Green Goat hybrid switche In addition, UP is purchasing 10 of the Green Goats for its Houston and Fort Worth yards. Three already are on site, with the remainder expected by year-end. This acquisition also is aided by the $81 million in TERP grants.

The hybrid switcher is powered by a battery bank. When energy stored in the batteries is depleted to a pre-set level, a small, low-emission diesel engine automatically starts to power a generator that recharges the batteries. The 10 units are expected to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by more than 260 tons annually at UP's yards in Houston and Fort Worth.