EMP13/02: Duke Inspects Battery Powered Locomotives During Clayton Equipment Visit (23 January 2013)

Issue Date: 23 January 2013
Ref: EMP13/02

The Duke of York inspects some of the locomotives at Clayton Equipment. Clayton Equipment manufactures electric powered narrow gauge industrial locomotives.

DUKE INSPECTS BATTERY POWERED LOCOMOTIVES DURING CLAYTON EQUIPMENT VISIT

Narrow-gauge industrial locomotives manufactured by Clayton Equipment and powered by high performance Hawker® batteries from EnerSys® were the centre of attention when His Royal Highness Prince Andrew, Duke of York visited the Clayton Equipment factory in Burton-on-Trent during October. Prince Andrew saw some of the latest locomotives being manufactured and met with Clayton Equipment staff including managing director Steve Gretton and business development manager Matthew Pearson.

Clayton Equipment designs and manufactures a range of battery, trolley and diesel powered narrow gauge locomotives for mining, tunnelling and other industrial applications. The company was established over 80 years ago and has produced narrow gauge locomotives since the 1960s. It also supplies rolling stock and associated equipment which allows it to offer complete train sets and “turnkey” solutions to customers in over 60 countries. The company has used Hawker batteries for more than 30 years and has specified them as standard since 2007 because the latest technology offers the ideal combination of performance, reliability and cost effectiveness.

One recent project was to provide new 14 and 20 tonne narrow gauge maintenance locomotives to Costain for working in tunnels beneath London to install and inspect power cables. These were powered by 200 volt batteries from the Hawker Perfect Plus™ range with 1240A/h and 750A/h capacities. These batteries are ideal for arduous and intensive applications because they offer a high level of power with longer running times and improved reliability. The use of advanced components in the positive plates promotes higher efficiency discharge compared with conventional batteries. The size of the positive and negative plates has also been optimised for the shape and volume of the cell box. This means the cells have higher capacities in the same dimensions as conventional batteries. All of the batteries incorporate the Aquamatic system which allows all cells to be topped up from a single point. This ensures consistent topping of all cells and significantly reduces maintenance time.

Every Clayton Equipment locomotive is designed to meet the precise specification from the customer. Locomotives can be very demanding on the power source and the first task is to assess duty cycles including factors such as weight of the locomotive, length of run, and number of trips during each shift. From this emerges the amount of energy required to complete each working period. This in turn dictates the choice and configuration of the battery pack.

Depending on the choice of battery and traction motor a Clayton Equipment locomotive might have a power rating as high as 112kW (150hp) supplied by a battery up to 135kWh. There is no such thing as a standard locomotive battery and an off-the-shelf solution is rarely available. Clayton Equipment’s engineers use their expertise and knowledge to select the most appropriate cells from the extensive Hawker range to build battery packs for each locomotive. The company manufactures special fabricated enclosures matched to the dimensions of the locomotive and battery. With the pulling power of a locomotive based on its weight, the use of denser battery packs with more energy can make a significant contribution to overall performance. Designers have greater flexibility because like-for-like Hawker batteries take up less space which allows the dimensions of the locomotive to be adapted or more power accommodated in the same enclosure.

One of the key factors is the reliability of the batteries. Many Clayton Equipment locomotives are designed to operate in arduous conditions in remote parts of the world. The company normally expects the batteries to last up to seven years as long as they are looked after in line with the manufacturer’s specification. Lower quality units from alternative local suppliers might only last two or three years which adds to maintenance and overall operating costs.