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On Track
GE Transportation Systems automated locomotive technology will reduce railroad costs, increase safety

by Anne Straub
Brevard Technical Journal

Mark Wheeler, senior software engineer, and Mark Kraeling, operator control unit program manager, test GE's Remote Control Locomotive system. Photo by Tim Shortt, © 2002.

GE Transportation Systems is gearing up for a product launch that it expects to win major orders next year for the company, which operates a division in Melbourne.

The company says its Remote Control Locomotive technology can reduce railroad companies' costs by increasing safety and decreasing payroll. GE Transportation is adding the technology to its lineup of railroad automation.

RCL comes into play in switching yards, the train industry's version of the Atlanta airport. A train arriving from Los Angeles, for example, might enter a Chicago switching yard hauling cargo bound for several different Northeast cities. Those cars need to be uncoupled from the original train and routed to their final destinations.

That's a manually intensive operation, requiring an engineer on the locomotive plus one to two additional workers on the ground. They do the work of uncoupling the cars and communicating with the engineer to guide the locomotive to the correct track.

The situation is rife with opportunity for error and accident, introducing the risk of the human cost of safety problems, as well as the lost productivity they cause. Such delays frustrate trains' attempts to capture more of the truck industry's share of the transportation market: Trucks can take alternate routes when there's a problem on a highway; a problem on a track can back up trains until the problem is fixed.

"It's a logistics nightmare," R.J. Foy, manager-train products for Global Signaling in Melbourne, said of managing the switchyards. Trains provide an efficient means of transporting large amounts of freight, but the routes are not direct. "It's A to G and there's B, C, D, E and F in the middle."

Under RCL, a switchman on the ground operates a unit strapped to his safety vest, which uses a radio link to control the train's speed and braking. The unit operates on an unregulated radio frequency, eliminating the cost of licensing. If the train loses the radio link with the unit, it stops automatically.

Global Signaling says the system reduces costs by eliminating the need for a worker on the locomotive and by reducing the occurrence of accidents through miscommunication between people on the ground and on the locomotive.

"You can switch more cars with the same amount of labor," Foy said.

R.J. Foy, manager of train products (left) and David McKay, business unit leader for train products and control systems stand in front of locomotive brake racks in the Locotrol Airbrake Lab. Photo by Tim Shortt, © 2002.

Remote technology has been used in switchyards in Canada for about a decade, demonstrating a reduction in yard accidents, said Tom White, editorial services director for the Association of American Railroads. It also shows the potential for increasing productivity in the yards.

"These are two very important elements if the railroad industry is to continue to grow and prosper," he said.

Automation is a growing part of the rail industry's approach to business. "Our challenge is to become more and more productive since we are so capital intensive," White said. Rail companies typically reinvest 20 percent of their revenue in capital improvements, versus 3.8 percent of revenue for the manufacturing industry.

Union Pacific began implementing remote technology in the spring, using GE competitors Canac and Cattron. Productivity has increased already, said spokesman John Bromley.

"All the major railroads are implementing it," he said.

Installing the technology everywhere the company plans to use it will take about two years, he said. Union Pacific could eventually use the Global Signaling version because GE, which also manufactures locomotives, plans to install it on the locomotives as they're built. "That is something we'd be very interested in," Bromley said.

Global Signaling promotes its radio technology over its competitors, saying it reduces the chance of interference and allows messages to passed on through a networking system, reducing the change shutdown due to lost communication.

The technology has spawned labor disputes because of the potential for payroll reduction. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers has resisted the technology and lobbied for its members, rather than the United Transportation Union, to operate the units. That issue is in arbitration, White said, while the technology is being introduced using members of the UTU.

The technology can be combined with Global Signaling's ProYard product, which many yards already use. That technology helps manage train coupling in hump yards, which use crests in the track to help trains build speed to get to the correct outgoing track. GE's presence in that market provides a ready customer base for RCL: The company has captured 85 percent of the North American hump yards that have updated to remote locomotive technology.

RCL was derived from another product called Locotrol, which helped the Melbourne operation get its start. Locotrol was a Harris Corp. product that increases efficiency by allowing rail companies to run longer trains. The technology allows locomotives to be placed in the front, middle and rear of the train, dispersing force, increasing fuel efficiency, and allowing trains to be longer and therefore carry more freight.

After having the technology for 30 years, Harris had sold only 1,000 units. The company teamed with GE, which already had experience in the rail industry, to form GE Harris Railway Electronics in 1995. The company located in Melbourne.

Five years later, it bought Harmon Industries, which made rail infrastructure such as signaling and gates. The company had been focused on onboard equipment, but now had a presence in another segment of the industry. "We had the onboard piece, and we had the wayside piece," said David McKay, business unit leader for Train Products and Control Systems at Global Signaling.

Harris sold its share in the venture in 2001, and the company now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of GE.

Throughout the permutations, Locotrol enjoyed significant growth, and sales have exceeded 5,000 systems. Union Pacific says the system increases fuel efficiency by 10 percent to 15 percent.

Still, the company was hit by the economic slowdown and reduced employment. GE Transportation now employs 175 people in Melbourne, including 60 in the Global Signaling division. McKay expects RCL orders to lead to more hiring next year.

On the Web: www.getransportation.com.