Oh, thats my fault sorry Backshop.
Don’t just have a road slug; you’ll have similar flexibility issues with the necessary ‘married pairs’ that GE had with the MATEs. Put your excess fuel storage for long distances on there. And the hybrid battery to allow effective regenerative braking and enhanced acceleration from your multiple traction motors. In other words make it enough like a FLXdrive to offer benefits beyond just road-sluggery, even if you don’t want to enable use of the thing as a battery locomotive for ‘special applications’.
In case you need enabling technology, RPS in Fullerton, CA has anything that Wabtec (ex- GE Locomotive) doesn’t…
1 Like
Slugs (in their current form) seem to come around every 10-15 years when someone thinks they are the greatest invention ever.
Lot of limitations with them.
1 Like
For what it is worth, the first “slugs” were built for the Butte Anaconda & Pacific for switching service. These were essentially a single truck as used by the original B-B units with the motors wired is series with the motors on the main locomotive which normally had two motors wired in series (1200V motors, 2400V catenary). This gave 50% more tractive effort with the same current draw, but at 2/3rds speed.
A battery equipped slug could be much more useful than a standard slug. I think Zug is right in that slugs have limitations that are not recognized by management.
1 Like
For what seemed like many years, slugs were restricted to hump-yard and similar service whenever low-speed torque without overheating motors was important. The early road slugs seemed to be an extension of that idea, not so much for main-line application but in transfer or ‘peddler’ service where high speed wasn’t generally needed but economical use of more than one prime mover wasn’t either. I also suspect that political concerns of various kinds might have been in play for some of the implementation.
Part of the problem is that many road slugs are still more or less semi permanently coupled, and most road power is not equipped to be connected easily as a slug mother. I don’t know of any railroad that has gone to the trouble and expense of addressing either of those concerns on a systematic basis.
1 Like
CSX went heavy into the Mother-Slug concept. While it was tried in road service it was found wanting from the speed perspective. Initially the slugs were configured to have their fuel tanks active and feed the mothers - it was problematic and was maintenance intensive and was stopped.
The Yard slug program was successful in that the mother-slug combination did provide two 4-axle’s pulling power for one engines fuel consumption. The knock is that the maximum speed of the combination is nominally 20 MPH or the speed that the mother can attain with that level of tonnage by itself.
Slugs are mainly useful at low speed where the mother can’t use the entire capability of their prime mover and generator. The Lake State has 4 for use on their northern branches that run to Alpena and Gaylord. They are upgrading the lines from old stick rail to heavier CWR, so their SD’s have been venturing up there.
Good point @Woke_Hoagland, that seems pretty reasonable on using something like the FLXdrive systems. And yeah, I understand that slugs do have limitations. @Erik_Mag I did not know that, thanks for that information, I’ll keep that in mind. Back to Woke_Hoagland, Yeah, slugs are only seen around yards on several railroads, sometimes leading locals, and yeah, that’s the issue, not being able to be mated easily with a slug mother, so that causes a whole other level of issues for railroads. That’s a good point you stated, Woke. Balt is right, CSX did go full on with the Mother-Slug concept - Even though some Mother-Slug sets are in storage near The Huntington Shops (more GP30 carbody slugs from what I have seen) but something has to be done about the fuel tanks on the slugs so they can feed the mother units without issues though, and @Backshop I have seen the 4 slugs for The Lake State.