New electric locomotive helps keep Sellafield, which has one of the largest internal rail works in the country, on the move

Trains. They’re not the first technology you think of when looking at the Sellafield site but they have a vital importance in keeping Europe’s largest nuclear site ‘on the rails’.

Recently, Sellafield bolstered its rail fleet with the arrival of its first fully electric locomotive adding to its impressive collection of two hybrid 80-tonne trains.

The new 40 tonne, fully battery-powered locomotive, built by Staffordshire-based Clayton’s in four months, is set to improve the site's rail operations.

With the company boasting one of the country's largest internal rail networks, spanning eleven miles, the upgrade will also help Sellafield Ltd reduce its carbon footprint.

The team wanted to bring the electric vehicles in five years ago after the emission standards on the diesel locomotives caused some issues in buildings around the site.

This caused the company to look at new technologies based on the specifications the transport team had for the vehicles.

John Thomas.

Lead System Engineer for Transportation John Thomas said: “Initially we looked at putting a diesel particulates filter on one of the locos because we had used it on a transport vehicle in the past and it was quite successful, but that wasn’t practical.

“So we then looked at pulling a specification together, a bit loosely saying we would prefer a diesel maybe an electrical, and if we had a hybrid we could use on diesel when we were outside of the buildings but then we were in the hoist wells we could switch it to electric, we could go into them emission free and alleviate all of them issues that we had.”

It went to tender and they received a competitive quote from Clayton’s in Burton on Trent. John said: “It wasn’t long before we realised that we could do 100% electric.”

The team has now had two 80-tonne Clayton hybrid trains and has recently brought in the third, which for the first time if fully electric.

There are now three electric trains on the site which can run for around ten days without needing to be charged. Each one takes around nine hours to charge.

The former diesel locomotives have been donated to heritage centres across the country, with some one of the machines going to Eden Valley railways at Warcop.

John said: “Some people are stuck in their ways, you will have some drivers who like certain things because they like the noise.

“You have got to have people who are willing to adapt to change as well, I have been here that long, but I always look with a fresh pair of eyes, and will always look at different ideas, there is always better ways to do things and move forward.”

Initially, management at the site believed that employees might find it difficult to adapt to the new locomotives. However, thanks to the trains being specially designed to support the drivers the locomotives were well received by the majority of the staff at Sellafield.

Mark McSherry, Sellafield Ltd’s rail operations manager said: “That was the big thing with the locos, there was six old diesels that had been on site for 30-40 years and they overlapped with the old steam engines that had been on site, some of the drivers that I had to get into driving these new Claytons had actually driven the old steam engines. People that had been on railways have been here for 40 years.

Mark said: “My biggest challenge was I have been there, I’ve shunted, I’ve driven, I have been here around 14 years, I came in as a shunter/driver and worked up.

“When we got the battery ones it was that change and to be fair the locos worked for them (drivers) and it went really well, people took to them.

“I thought we would have to fight with people to get them off the old trains, but they were choosing the new ones, because they were built for them.”

The new trains are helping reduce Sellafield’s carbon footprint and the team is also finding they are much easier to use than the diesels. John said: “They are easier to operate, even though two are eight tonners and the other is a 40 tonner the cabs are identical.

“I can drive them smoothly and I am not a train driver, that’s how easy they are to drive.”

Mark added: “Other benefits from a driver’s point of view they’re quieter to drive, they’re smoother to be in like a new car, they run on the track better.

“In terms of what we move, nuclear material, lead acid batteries are the lowest conventional fire safety risk and they don’t reach a certain temperature, so they can be around flasks.”

The transport team has discovered somewhat of a newfound fame since bringing in the electric vehicles onto site, with celebrities such as Guy Martin visiting the site to create documentaries on the electric locomotives.