Fergus Moffat

Broschiertes Buch

The Only Game In Town

The LOCOTROL story

Beschreibung

This is the story of the development of remote-controlled railroad distributed motive power. Distributing locomotive power throughout the length of a long, heavy train and controlling those dispersed locomotives remotely, shares the motive force throughout the train rather than concentrating it all conventionally at the head-end. The technology provides a railroad with the tools to multiply the carrying capacity of trains without adding expensive trackage. With synchronous traction and braking control, the system provides the locomotive engineer with opportunities to handle trains more safely and effectively, especially in mountainous territory. Many railroads have found that it is the only solution to increasing network capacity other than to install duplicate or triplicate trackage. It is important that the history of technological development be accurately recorded and perhaps more so in the case of a niche application such as this; a technology that has so assuredly contributed to the safe operation of long, heavy freight trains. LOCOTROL was the progenitor of the technology, and Moffat's account-being the only known detailed history of these developments-is a remarkable contribution to such literature. This book is for both rail professionals and historians interested to understand the origins and technical development of LOCOTROL, as the author incorporates a valuable personal connection to these developments. These include a graphic part-diarised account of a four-month installation project in India and a highly personalised portrayal of the man most responsible for the introduction of LOCOTROL to the Canadian Pacific Railway - the first large-scale global customer for the technology. The CPR experience with LOCOTROL is vital as it paved the way for global acceptance of the product. This book is not an instruction manual on how to operate LOCOTROL. It does, though, include descriptive narrative and graphic substance around how LOCOTROL operates; the better to describe and explain it. The LOCOTROL product continues to evolve, and-not intending to pursue this incremental development as far as the current day-this history is limited to the iteration known as LOCOTROL III. Since taking over Harris Controls, GE Transportation have greatly advanced the technology, integrating it with the electronic control of locomotives and train air braking. Prior to the advent of ECP braking, distributed power had arguably been the single greatest technological advance for railroading since the introduction of the automatic coupler and the air brake triple valve. Originally known by various names before receiving the proprietary name LOCOTROL, this was the first distributed power scheme to be proven in regular service and for 40 years was the only practical application of this technology.

Autor

FERGUS MOFFAT HAS WORKED in the rail transport environment for over 50 years. He grew up on a sheep farm in the New Zealand province of South Otago and began his career in 1970 at age 17 as an engine cleaner in the Dunedin steam locomotive depot of New Zealand railways. He went on to become a locomotive engineman on passenger and freight operations with diesel and electric traction in various locations around the country. In 1981 he accepted a position as a locomotive driver with Mt Newman Mining (later to become BHP Iron Ore) in the Pilbara region of Western Australia and he and his wife moved to Port Hedland. Fergus went on to training and supervisory positions within the BHP Iron Ore Railroad Operations division. After 13 years in this environment--with both BHP and Robe River Iron Associates--Fergus took up an operations position with National Rail Corporation (now Pacific National).In the ensuing 20 years he has worked in a private contract capacity as a locomotive driver, operating from various locations throughout Western Australia and New South Wales, and in contract linehaul service between Adelaide and Perth. Along the way he spent four months in India, training locomotive and supervisory staff in the operation of the LOCOTROL distributed motive power system, and a year in SE Asia and two years in Queensland in technical management roles involving the establishment of luxury tourist passenger train services.Fergus now lives in Melbourne, Australia, and having worked for almost 16 years for an independent government agency as a transport safety investigator, is now retired. He is a foundation member of the Melbourne Rebels Super Rugby club, and continues to support the New Zealand All Blacks. He enjoys the V8 Supercars competition, and although the financial burdens of life have rendered him a lapsed private pilot, he still pursues an active interest in aviation and enjoys travel.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: FE Moffat
• Seitenzahl: 302
• Erscheinungstermin: 28. Mai 2021
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 273mm x 210mm x 20mm
• Gewicht: 1072g
• ISBN-13: 9780648529019
• ISBN-10: 0648529010
• Artikelnr.: 62174829