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 generati ...

that permits railway

locomotive A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the 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, railcar or power car; the ...

s to be distributed throughout the length of a train ( distributed power). 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 U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

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 consist ...

. Early Locotrol customers included the Southern Railway, Norfolk & Western Railway, Detroit Edison,

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 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 g ...

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 pu ...

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 Pac ...

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