July 16, 2023
By  David Lustig 

BNSF’s first hydrogen locomotive - Trains

Hydrogen locomotive

BNSF’s HH20B hydrogen locomotive test unit, No. 1205, awaits duty in Los Angeles on April 18, 2010. David Lustig

Hydrogen powered locomotives have been getting plenty of press lately, with several railroads, large and small, taking the concept seriously.

Long before the current plethora of projects however, BNSF, in conjunction with Vehicle Projects, a Colorado-based fuel-cell company with transportation interests, commissioned a prototype hydrogen locomotive in the early 2000s.

The core of the new unit came from a previously undelivered RailPower Green Goat, a battery-powered switcher that initially created a big splash in the locomotive business. Similar to many designs that have tried to get a toehold in the North American market, the Green Goat, no matter how well thought out its design, never really enamored itself to operating crews.

Lettering on the locomotive’s long hood makes it clear the HH20B is not a typical diesel. Davd Lustig

Canadian Pacific ordered a number of the units, but the majority of the order was canceled before most of the locomotives left the factory. One of those remaining was CP 1704, which had been assembled, painted, and was waiting to be delivered. The BNSF/Vehicle Projects hydrogen project gave the unit a chance at a second life. Stripped of its multiple batteries, the unit was sent to BNSF’s Topeka, Kan., shops.

The former Green Goat locomotive undergoes its conversion to hydrogen power at BNSF’s shops in Topeka, Kan., on Dec. 9, 2008. David Lustig

Upon arrival, the unit’s innards were stripped out and the railroad’s engineers were tasked to redesign the space for hydrogen fuel cell apparatus and specially designed hydrogen storage tanks. After more than two years of on-again, off-again work, the unit, now BNSF HH20B No. 1205, rolled into the sunlight on June 29, 2009. It was then sent to an off-line locomotive rebuilder for painting.

In between, the unit demonstrated its abilities in the Topeka area before being sent dead in train to Southern California, which had always been intended as its home base. Here it participated in a number of dog-and-pony shows for local politicians, its clean hydrogen power touted over the emission-spewing diesels idling in the nearby fueling racks.

It was usually positioned on a display track near the administration building’s parking lot for visitors to marvel at and employees to ignore. Seven years, and probably zero revenue miles later, the experiment was considered officially completed. Ultimately the 1205 was shipped back to Topeka to await disposition.

There is a happy ending.

Stripped of its hydrogen components, No. 1205 was eventually donated by BNSF to the Oklahoma Railway Museum in Oklahoma City. The goal, according to a source, is to physically refurbish it and use it as a non-powered control unit on the rear end of excursion trains.

BNSF Special Agents Paul Cendejas and Lexo on the job at Hobart Yard in Los Angeles in 2010 doing a quick check of the newly arrived hydrogen fuel-cell locomotive. David Lustig