Excited to announce that TRAIN PhD student Diwen “Steven” Shi and Prof. Dick have recently published a new research paper in the Journal of Infrastructure Systems! This paper investigates the “Gravity-Battery-Electric Train” (GBET) concept that uses a battery-electric locomotive (BEL) to capture the regenerative braking energy of loaded downhill trains to sustain the propulsion of empty uphill trains on a mine-to-port railway operation. GBET round trips on simplified uniform grade mine-to-port rail corridors are simulated with the Advanced Locomotive Technology and Rail Infrastructure Optimization System (ALTRIOS) to determine the combinations of grade, range and railcar weight ratio that yield feasible battery state-of-charge (SOC) profiles for a range of BEL battery sizes. The representative corridor designs incorporate a range of gradient and curvature common to North American freight railroads, with the aim of determining if GBET operations are feasible for typical mainline freight train sizes. Although GBET operation must carefully match battery capacity and corridor profile to optimize the operation strategy on a case-by-case basis, GBET is potentially feasible on common grade profiles, providing a pathway to reduce energy consumption and emissions of mainline mine-to-port freight railroad operations.
The reference and DOI link for the paper is as follows:
Shi, D., and C.T. Dick. 2026. Quantifying the feasible operating range of gravity battery electric trains on mine-to-port railways. Journal of Infrastructure Systems. 32(3): 04026016 doi: 10.1061/JITSE4.ISENG-2890.