In November I was invited by Network Rail, along with my Adventures on Trains co-author Sam Sedgman, to COP26 to take a trip on the United Kingdom’s first hydrogen-powered train - the HyrdoFLEX.
We travelled to Glasgow on the Caledonian Sleeper, which has been a long-held aspiration of mine and was a dream come true.
When we arrived at Glasgow Central station we met the wonderful Jackie Ogilvie, who has built up a museum collection exhibited in the station and gives guided tours sharing the history of the place with interested folk like us.
After our brilliant tour of Glasgow Central, we met Helen Simpson, the engineer who was one of the inventors of the HydroFLEX. She took us into the hydrogen chamber and told us how the train worked.
We were joined on the train by a wonderful class of Glaswegian children, from a local school, and staged an event about our Adventures on Trains books, on the train! We told the children about our fifth book - Sabotage on the Solar Express - which is set on board a hydrogen-powered train of the future, and that we couldn’t believe that we were actually on one, with them, right now!
The strangest thing happened. As we were talking to the children, the train doors opened and people with cameras got onto the train and then so did Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He said hello to the children, asked us about our books, and then left! It was very surprising. We were later told that he too was visiting the HydroFLEX.
We performed a reading for the children from Danger at Dead Man’s Pass, and then the HydroFLEX left the station and did a circuit around Glasgow before returning. It was a memorable experience to be on the first British hydrogen-powered train. I hope it heralds a future where fuels are green and clean.
It was one of the most surreal and magical days of my professional life.
