BNSF Railway Hydrogen Test Locomotive

Built as Canadian Pacific GP9 8637 in 1957, the unit was rebuilt by CP in the mid-1980s and utilized in regular service until 2006, when the unit was converted to a “Green Goat,” an early form of battery-electric switcher. In 2007, the unit was acquired by BNSF and rebuilt at BNSF’s Topeka, Kansas, locomotive shop facility as part of a public-private partnership between Vehicle Projects Inc., Ballard Fuel Systems, and the U.S. Department of Defense.

The unit was officially unveiled as a hydrogen fuel cell switcher on June 29, 2009, and moved to Pueblo, Colorado, for extensive testing at the Association of American Railroad’s Technical Training Center Institute test facility (renamed MxV Rail in 2022) prior to entering service at BNSF’s Hobart Yard in Los Angeles, California.

The objective of this most recent project was to determine if hydrogen-powered fuel cell switcher locomotives could meet the operational demands and duty cycles of yard service, while producing zero emissions. After several years of operation and data collection at Hobart Yard, the unit was retired in 2014, and recently donated to ORM by BNSF. The test unit set the stage for future developments in alternative energy technology at BNSF, which is also planning a mainline hydrogen fuel cell locomotive demonstration with Progress Rail and Chevron in 2024.

ORM took delivery of this historic alternative fuel testbed locomotive in August of 2023.