Loco No. 3 to be First Carbon Neutral Engine
The Talyllyn Railway is delighted to announce that, on it’s return to traffic in May, Loco No. 3 Sir Haydn will become the world’s first fully carbon neutral steam engine. This remarkable feat will represent the cumulation of a three-year programme of design and testing and will once again put the Talyllyn at the forefront of the heritage railway preservation movement.
The carbon footprint of operating coal-fired steam locomotives has long been a concern of the Talyllyn and, with dwindling global coal stocks and an ever-increasing public focus on the environment, the need for change could be put off no longer. In late 2015 the Railway’s management appointed well-known environmental consultant Mr Doug L. Rocks to head small team to come up with a solution to the problem.
Mr Rocks says: “Initially we looked at the classical solutions. Electrification was obviously considered but, on consultation with Network Rail, it was found that to do so on the Talyllyn would take upwards of eighteen years, require three public enquiries and ultimately only be completed as far as Pendre.”
“We undertook a brief experiment using battery powered locomotives but, unfortunately, the technology is not quite there yet. Our attempt to convert of one of the Dolgoch water columns into a 22kW rapid charge-point ended in failure as we neglected to remove the water first and ended up electrifying much of the surrounding countryside.”
After almost eighteen months of valiant failure Mr Rocks and his team were on the verge of giving up when they chanced upon a remarkable discovery. He continues:
“A number of our dedicated volunteers often spend some of their time walking the line and collecting all the coal that has fallen off the locomotive footplates. They put this all into buckets and it is re-cycled on the engines the next day. After a particular hot spell in August of last year they accidently collected a lineside substance that was most definitely not coal. When this substance was burnt in the engines the next day the results were remarkable – the calorific value of it was something else.”
So what was this remarkable substance that the team had stumbled across?
“The solution had been staring us in the face this whole time: Sheep. Or more specifically, their leavings.”
“The Talyllyn has long had a problem with woolly trespassers on the line but none of us had even considered that, due to the well-watered and hardy nature of the grass they eat in the valley, the local sheep were producing a substance in their droppings that left all petroleum products in the shade. We started trials immediately and the results were remarkable. We found we could power a locomotive for a full trip up the line from the daily leavings of around eighty-five sheep.”
Since this discovery by Mr Rocks and his team the Railway has taken a number of steps to bring this remarkable new fuel into production:
Loco No. 3 Sir Haydn has had a new, finer, grate fitted into its firebox to allow it to be the first engine to exclusively use this new fuel source.
The Railway has purchased a stock of almost a thousand sheep to be grazed along the lineside all the way up the seven-and-a-quarter mile strip of line owned by the Talyllyn to provide the necessary amount of the new fuel source required.
The Railway has also embarked on a significant fence-strengthening programme to ensue that none of these sheep escape into the neighbouring fields.
One full set of carriages has been fitted with fully-sealed double-glazing units to allow it to be used with the sheep-poo-burning Loco No. 3 on its return. This is due to the spectacular smell produced by the combustion process.
A new early-morning train, staffed by the locomotive cleaners, will run up and down the line each day to collect the black gold left on the lineside by the new sheep population.
In conjunction with becoming carbon neutral the Talyllyn will also be introducing a new timetable to account for the significantly-longer journey times caused by the need to navigate seven-and-a-quarter miles of horribly over-grazed land. The café will also, from the end of April, be introducing a new range of mutton-based meals.
A spokeswoman for Natural Resources Wales commented on the plan: “This is one of the most ridiculous and hair-brained schemes I have ever seen. For a start it isn’t even carbon-neutral and, secondly, it violates just-about every animal-welfare law in the book. I’ll see you in court.”
The general secretary of the National Farmers Union, of which the Talyllyn is now a member, said: “Do you really expect me to comment on what is obviously a made-up story for April the first?”
The General Manager of the Talyllyn was not available for comment.
