Toledo port will convert 2nd train to electric

A little more than a year after putting its first rebuilt, battery-electric switching locomotive to work, the firm that operates the Port of Toledo’s general cargo docks is sending another one out for conversion.

And as with the first, Midwest Terminals of Toledo International is getting a substantial state contribution toward the cost. Three quarters of the estimated $2.4 million price tag, or $1.8 million, will come from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

“If the next one’s as effective as the one we’ve got, if not better, then it’s money well spent,” said Todd Audet, a strategic planning consultant for Midwest Terminals and former company vice president of operations.

Like Engine 205 that entered service at the docks off St. Lawrence Drive in July, 2023, Engine 703 will be rebuilt by Medha Transportation, LLC, with a bank of batteries where it now has a diesel-fuel powered engine block to generate electricity supplied to motors on its wheels.

While those batteries still consume electricity to be recharged, the all-electric propulsion system makes no smoke, no smell, and minimal noise: just a moderate hum when the engineer works its throttle.

The primary difference between Engine 205 and Engine 703 will be that the latter is going to St. Louis, rather than Texas, for its reincarnation. It’s also slightly younger — built in 1965, rather than 1954, and rebuilt at least once since then — but when it comes back, everything behind the cab and above the frame will have been replaced.

Delivery of the rebuilt engine is expected about a year from now.

Brent Lutz, a locomotive engineer for Midwest who operates both the existing electric engine as well as other diesel-powered engines at the docks, said the electric “has its pros and cons.”

The control system, brakes, motors, and wheel assemblies are all the same. But diesel-electric propulsion “has more oomph in the initial startup,” while the electric engine is “more smooth” while taking a little more time to power up, Mr. Lutz said.

“It’s not a large difference, but there’s definitely a small difference,” he said.

Robert Holtz, Midwest Terminals’ current vice president of operations, said a result of that difference is that the electric “is less impactful on the rail” and overall is “far more efficient.”

“It’s a far easier ride, with less slack action,” Mr. Holtz said, referring to buffering forces between the rail cars in a train during acceleration and deceleration.

Engine 205 was, according to its manufacturer, the first completely battery-electric conversion engine to enter service in North America. They’re being marketed to small railroad operations like the Toledo port’s, which don’t operate around the clock and generally don’t have to move long, heavy drafts of freight cars around.

But they do need to move railcars around at scattered times throughout the day so they’re in the right spots for loading or unloading. And from time to time, the port railroad makes a short jaunt over to some leased tracks at the adjoining CSX Transportation railroad yard where outbound cars are dropped off and inbound cars are picked up.

“The biggest pull we have is over to CSX into our leased tracks,” Mr. Audet said.

A conventional locomotive would consume about 40 gallons of fuel doing that work, Mr. Holtz said, and during the colder months one burns about 4½ gallons per hour just keeping warm so its fuel doesn’t gelatinize.

The risk of spills during the periodic tanker-truck visits to refuel the engine also is eliminated with batteries.

Last fall, when Engine 205 was formally introduced to the public, officials said the first engine’s performance would inform what to do for the next one, including the possibility of acquiring an engine powered by a hydrogen fuel cell.

Mr. Audet said as Engine 703 was being prepared to ship out, though, that fuel-cell technology hasn’t advanced enough since then to select that option for a locomotive.

“We could use hydrogen fuel for the recharging station first,” he noted.

Contact David Patch at: dpatch@theblade.com.