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Midwest delays reduced, Empire Builder disruptions persist
Will the new locomotives for Midwest corridor services have AC traction motors? I think they are less vulnerable to shorting out in wet conditions.
Also, Amtrak really needs to buy or rebuild some equipment so they have some spares available.
Why are traction motors experiencing problems?They have positive pressure from the blowers and snow shouldn’t get into the motors. This sounds like a problem that Toyota would solve in a minute and then the U.S. manufacturers would try to catch up. There is no excuse for this.
How 'bout a ‘pit track’, at places like Havre, MT and Minot, ND, with hot air blowers to dry out the traction motors while the engines are refueling?
Traction motors have positive pressure. That’s true, but they get the air to provide this pressure from the only source available: outside air. When weather conditions are such that snow is ingested into the traction motor cooling system, the result is moisture in the traction motors. The filtering system controls this snow ingestion to a great extent, but cannot prevent every molecule of water from being pushed into the traction motors. It doesn’t take much moisture to cause an electric motor to ground out.
I believe Traction motor blowers are thermostatically controlled. With very cold temps, they may not have all that much “cooling” Blower motor force keeping out snow, which then melts, and causes ground fault issues. There should be a way to solve this problem though,while being efficient. Be interesting to hear the follow up on this…
The point is that Amtrak is pretty much working from an open-air facility that supports its operations at Union Station. It might as well be a Wal-Mart parking lot for all the shelter it provides to the employees who are trying to get the work done. Those of us who have some idea what wintertime is like in Chicago shouldn’t have too much trouble understanding why prolonged cold and snow adversely affects the productivity of a facility that is perpetually exposed to the elements. If you want to help, and you have the ear of your Congressman (especially if you live in the upper Midwest), ask him or her to help find the money to get a covered inspection facility built. We can talk on and on about locomotive traction motors, but Amtrak’s fundamental problem in Chicago is that the maintenance and turnaround work is being done mostly outdoors in whatever weather presents itself. Worse, this makes it more difficult to thaw railcars that arrive with ice & snow issues. For those of you who live in a northern climate, I ask you: Does your auto mechanic work outdoors day and night in the rain, wind and snow? If s/he did, what might you be thinking?
Until the design flaw regarding the traction motor air induction system is addressed the problem will continue. The first and second generation passanger locomotives pulling trains through deep snow and blizzard conditions at speed never faultered.