Port of Baltimore claims a first with battery-electric railcar mover

The Port of Baltimore’s Wallenius Wilhelmsen terminal rolled out an electric railcar mover in what the port says is a first for the contemporary U.S. maritime industry.

The zero-emissions LOK 16.150E, manufactured by Marmon Rail’s Zephir division of Italy, features an 80-volt rechargeable battery system with onboard charger powering two 40-kilowatt, alternating current, brushless motors. At just over 21 feet in length, the 63,900-pound Zephir has drawbar pull of 39,500 pound-force.

In a promotional video, the port said the Zephir is expected to reduce diesel fuel consumption by 16,000 gallons annually, removing 13.87 tons of nitrous oxide and 182 tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

“At this terminal, the asset will be used to help with intermodal cargo exchange,” said Matt Stahl, Mid-Atlantic terminal general manager, Wallenius Wilhelmsen, in the video. “So coming to and from the port via rail, and to and from the ocean line, as well.”

Zephir will also reduce switching costs, Stahl said.

“We can do it with our own asset, without any assistance.”

Ro-ro specialist Wallenius Wilhelmsen is based in Sweden and Norway.

In a coincidental case of what’s old is new again, the Zephir harks back to battery-powered railcar movers built by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1912, rubber-tired “locomotives” used to switch freight cars around the narrow streets of the Baltimore waterfront on track curvature too tight for standard motive power.

The PRR classified operators as “chauffeurs,” instead of costlier locomotive engineers.

Find more articles by Stuart Chirls here.

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