Locotrol is a product of

GE Transportation GE Transportation is a division of Wabtec. It was known as GE Rail and owned by General Electric until sold to Wabtec on February 25, 2019. The organization manufactures equipment for the railroad, marine, mining, drilling and energy generation ...

that permits railway

locomotive A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the Power (physics), motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, Motor coach (rail), motor ...

s to be distributed throughout the length of a train (

distributed power In rail transport, distributed power (DP) is a generic term referring to the physical distribution—at intermediate points throughout the length of a train—of separate motive power groups. Such "groups" may be single units or multiple consist ...

). It is installed on more than 17,000 locomotives around the world, sending signals from the lead locomotive and via radio to the

remote control locomotive A remote control locomotive (also called an RCL) is a railway locomotive that can be operated with a remote control. It differs from a conventional locomotive in that a remote control system has been installed in one or more locomotives within the ...

History

Locotrol was developed in the 1960s by an

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

telephone and electronics manufacturer, North Electric Company. The technology was later purchased by GE-Harris Railway Electronics predecessor Harris Controls Systems Division of Harris Corporation. The electronics were mounted in a separate railcar, but have since been miniaturised into relatively small cabinets with much of the functionality contained in

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...

. Early Locotrol customers included the Southern Railway,

Norfolk & Western Railway The Norfolk and Western Railway , commonly called the N&W, was a US class I railroad, formed by more than 200 railroad mergers between 1838 and 1982. It was headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia, for most of its existence. Its motto was "Precisio ...

Detroit Edison DTE Electric Company (formerly The Detroit Edison Company) was founded in 1886. DTE Electric's power generation portfolio includes renewable energy, but is primarily generated by fossil fuels. In 2021, 67.32% of electricity generated by DTE came ...

Canadian Pacific The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...

and Australia's Mount Newman Mining and

Queensland Rail Queensland Rail (QR) is a railway operator in Queensland, Australia. Owned by the Queensland Government, it operates local and long-distance passenger services, as well as owning and maintaining approximately 6,600 kilometres of track and relate ...

. Today numerous railroads use Locotrol, with systems deployed globally numbering in the thousands. Since 1975, both

and

Mount Newman railway The Mount Newman railway, owned and operated by BHP, is a private rail network in the Pilbara region of Western Australia built to carry iron ore. It is one of two railway lines BHP operates in the Pilbara, the other being the Goldsworthy rail ...

in Australia have used the system on coal and iron ore trains, permitting the doubling in the size of trains without exceeding draw-gear strength, through the use of mid-train locomotives.

Westrail Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) was the operator of railway services in the state of Western Australia between October 1890 and June 2003. Owned by the state government, it was renamed a number of times to reflect extra responsi ...

introduced Locotrol working in 1996, also with retrofitted equipment. In June 2001 BHP Iron Ore in the Australian

Pilbara The Pilbara () is a large, dry, thinly populated region in the north of Western Australia. It is known for its Aboriginal peoples; its ancient landscapes; the red earth; and its vast mineral deposits, in particular iron ore. It is also a glo ...

set a record for the longest train with 682 ore cars and eight distributed

GE AC6000CW The AC6000CW is a diesel electric locomotive built between 1995 and 2001 by GE Transportation. It is among the world's most powerful single-engined diesel locomotives. The locomotive was designed for extremely high horsepower needs, such as pull ...

locomotives in a 2-168-2-168-2-168-1-178-1 configuration.

BNSF BNSF Railway is one of the largest freight railroads in North America. One of seven North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that ...

and

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

are major North American Locotrol operators.

Features

Originally an aftermarket product, the system is also available as an option on new locomotives. Distributed power itself was not a new concept, but it required an extra train crew to be located in the middle of the train. Two modes of operation can be used: synchronous where all locomotives operating in unison, or independent mode where part of the train heading upgrade can be powering, while the other half can be braking on the downgrade. Most systems use lead and middle of train locomotives, but up to four consists can be controlled from the lead unit.

References

{{reflist Locomotives Radio control Rail technologies

History

Features

See also

References