Porterbrook welcomed YouTuber Geoff Marshall to the Long Marston Rail Innovation Centre where he joined company’s engineers onboard HydroFLEX for one of its mainline test runs.
Development on the successor to the original HydroFLEX train began in 2020, creating a passenger-ready hydrogen train that had four times the power of the first HydroFLEX, three times the battery capacity and a potential range of over 300 miles, the Porterbrook previously reported.
HydroFLEX has now reached speeds of over 80mph during mainline testing, and was showcased to the world at the COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow in 2021. High profile visitors to the train included HRH The Prince of Wales (now King Charles III) and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Up to 277kg of hydrogen fuel is safely contained aboard HydroFLEX in 36 high pressure tanks. This is fed into fuel cells, where a chemical process converts the hydrogen and oxygen from the air to generate clean electricity.
Porterbrook has invested over £12 million in HydroFLEX, with over 30 UK companies and 250 people contributing to the development of the train.
Photo of Porterbrook
Press release and video https://www.porterbrook.co.uk/news/youtuber-geoff-marshall-takes-a-ride-on-hydroflex
