Are all locomotives equipped with event recorder or so called “black box”? What kind of medium is used to record, magnetic tape or newer version of electronics equipment? What kind of information they usually record? Thanks!
Karn[:)]
If a unit is in mainline service, it must have a working event recorder. There are two types of recorders out there. One uses an 8 track tape and the other is digital. They both record throttle, brake application, horn,dynamic braking and speed.
The parameters an event recorder sees is largly up to the RR. The essential parameters are: Speed, brake pipe, direction,throttle position, lead unit cut in, pcs status, motor current. The 8 tracks only record 8 parameters this is deemed insufficient by many RRs so a more sophisticated recorder is in wide use. If a recorder has sufficient memory it can be used as a troubleshooting tool and to ride check engineers. It is also used to find causes of break in two’s and to find accident causes.
Randy
There are also event recorders located in the interlockings, and, road crossings. Some models we use can monitor 128 relays, and, some monitor over 200 relays. They’re digital storage devices that record “logic high” or “logic low” via a relay contact inside the relay(s) you wi***o monitor. The only time something gets logged in is when a relay has changed state, for example, a relay that was de-energized “down” has now been energized into its “up” state. Once the recorder has filled up, it will bump out the oldest entry to insert the latest entry. Some data recorders can hold 30 days of data, some locations hold less. It all depends on how much memory you purchased for the data recorder, and, how busy the location is where the data recorder is installed. The data recorder was very useful to us when we had the Amtrak crash in Chase, Md on Jan. 4, 1987.