Preliminary investigation of an 8-axle freight locomotive design as a possible net-zero-emission motive power solution for Australian rail operational tasks

There is limited information on locomotive design developments that suit Australian needs in terms of practical applications for achieving net-zero-emission goals in rail motive power solutions. The usage of modelling an simulation approaches a part of digital twin technologies for hybrid and hydrogen-powered rail vehicles can be a useful tool to make an evaluation of possible practical design variants of battery storage or hydrogen and hybrid combinations. Recent digital twin research studies in this area, performed at the Centre for Railway Engineering located at CQUniversity, show that the implementation of 6 axle locomotives for these purposes can be problematic due to the existing limitations for sizing and optimising zero carbon energy storage options and train operational scenarios. It is possible to resolve these sizing and optimising tasks with the implementation of 8 axle locomotives. To investigate the feasibility of this option, the digital twin pathway to net-zero carbon dioxide emissions. was chosen, an 8-axle freight locomotive digital twin was developed, and the deliverables are presented.