Oak Ridge Today

Company could evaluate leaving rail in place at airport

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Image from Oak Ridge City Council agenda packet for Feb. 13, 2023.

The Brentwood company performing preliminary studies for the proposed Oak Ridge Airport could evaluate leaving a short section of railroad in place and building a runway bridge over it.

The short section of railroad has been called a potential “deal-killer” for the airport.

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Railroad could jeopardize airport

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If not removed, this section of railroad tracks at Heritage Center, the former K-25 site, would be a “deal-killer” for the proposed Oak Ridge Airport because the runway would be built in this area but could not be with the railroad tracks there. This is looking east across the main entrance to Heritage Center on Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2023. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

Railroad tracks at Heritage Center, the former K-25 site, have emerged as a potential “deal-killer” for the proposed Oak Ridge Airport.

On Tuesday, Oak Ridge city leaders said a new company in west Oak Ridge might want to use the rail line to ship materials, but the tracks run through and roughly perpendicular to where the airport runway would be. Officials had expected the rail line, which had been “very inactive,” to be transferred.

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Oak Ridge Today
P.O. Box 6064
Oak Ridge, TN 37831

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ORNL studying hydrogen as rail fuel to fight climate change

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Pictured above at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2022, for a project to research using hydrogen in a locomotive at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are, from left, Jim Gamble, vice president of engine and power solutions technology for Wabtec Corporation; Siddiq Khan, technology development manager for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Vehicle Technologies Office; Melissa Shurland, program manager in the Office of Research, Development, and Technology in the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration; Dean Edwards, ORNL research and development lead; Xin Sun, ORNL associate laboratory director in the Energy Science and Technology Directorate; and Muhsin Ameen, senior research scientist at Argonne National Laboratory. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

Note: This story was updated at 1 p.m. Nov. 12.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory has started a research project to investigate using hydrogen fuel in a railroad engine to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and help fight climate change. Rail is one of the industries considered challenging to decarbonize along with aviation and shipping.

Researchers at ORNL and Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago will use a large single-cylinder 375-horsepower Wabtec engine that will burn a mixture of hydrogen and diesel fuel, which is what locomotives burn now. Under four-year agreements, the researchers will study things like engine hardware, fuel mixtures, and ignition strategies. Other low-carbon fuels could also be studied.

“We are excited to be a part of this collaboration because it addresses the need to decarbonize the rail industry by advancing hydrogen engine technology for both current and future locomotives,” said Josh Pihl, an ORNL distinguished researcher and group leader for applied catalysis and emissions research. “It is also a perfect example of how a DOE-funded collaboration between industry and national laboratories can accelerate the development and commercialization of technologies to help reduce carbon emissions from transportation.”

The 15.7-liter engine, larger than a tractor-trailer motor, was recently installed in garage-size research space at the National Transportation Research Center, an ORNL campus in Hardin Valley. ORNL had a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the engine research project on Wednesday.

[Read more…]

Sponsored: Enjoy Thanksgiving ride on Secret City Train with Bart Jennings

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Secret City Scenic Excursion Train

Secret City Scenic Excursion Train (Photos courtesy Southern Appalachia Railway Museum)

 

Bart Jennings

Bart Jennings

Enjoy a train ride on Thanksgiving weekend with a professor who was part of the team that started the Secret City Scenic Railroad in Oak Ridge.

Special car host Bart Jennings is a professor of supply chain management at Western Illinois University, and he has a decade of railroad experience, plus more than two decades of railroad consulting and regulatory training, a press release said.

Here is more information about this weekend’s train rides:

WHEN:

  • Friday, November 28, at 11 a.m.—Special Black Friday Sale: 20 percent off in the Gift Shop
  • Friday November 28, at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.
  • Saturday, November 29, at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.

WHERE: Depart from the Heritage Center at 2010 Highway 58 in Oak Ridge, TN 37830 [Read more…]

Rail company offers county two bridge replacement options

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Information from WYSH Radio

CSX Railroad Corp. has given the Anderson County government options on how to address the issues that have kept a railroad-owned bridge on a county road closed since July.

The bridge on Johnson Gap Road—which is the shortest route between Clinton and the Dutch Valley community—has been closed since July 13, when Tennessee Department of Transportation inspectors determined that the wooden bridge supports were no longer safe.

CSX has offered to rebuild the old wooden bridge with a five-ton weight limit at its own expense or allow the county to replace it with a concrete structure. County officials estimate that a concrete bridge would likely cost the county around $450,000. [Read more…]

Police ID Clinton man who died after car rolled onto railroad tracks

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The Clinton Police Department has identified the man killed after his car rolled down an embankment and onto railroad tracks early Saturday morning.

Chris Vann, 39, of Clinton had been driving a 1992 Mitsubishi on Carden Road, which runs parallel to the train tracks, when his car left the road, rolled down the embankment, and came to rest on the tracks.

A CPD press release said it wasn’t clear if Vann died during the first accident or when his car was hit by a Norfolk Southern train. Police said it also wasn’t clear how long the vehicle had been on the tracks before it was hit by the train.

[Read more…]