Patent ID: 8117969

Claim:
A hydrogen hybrid locomotive comprising: a set of batteries for driving a plurality of electric traction motors for moving the locomotive along a set of railroad rails; and a fuel cell power plant for charging the set of batteries and driving the electric traction motors, the fuel cell power plant comprising: at least one fuel cell power module for generating electrical current by reacting hydrogen fuel and oxygen from intake air, the amount of electrical current proportional to an air mass flow of the intake air; an air system for selectively providing an air mass flow to the fuel cell module to generate an amount of electrical current required for corresponding operating conditions of the locomotive; and a cooling system for cooling the at least one fuel cell power module in response to the amount of current being generated by the at least one fuel cell power module, wherein the cooling system comprises: a pump for pumping cooling fluid; a heat exchange system for extracting heat from cooling fluid provided by the pump; and a valve system for selectively providing cooling fluid from the heat exchange system to the fuel cell power module and for selectively providing cooling fluid from the pump to the fuel cell power module while bypassing the heat exchange system.