Is there a way that engineers know when the DP unit is misbehaving?
I saw a coal train this afternoon with two GEs on the point and another on the hind end. The hind-end unit was smoking pretty badly, and sounding pretty really weak. The chugging seemed to get even weaker as the unit got further away, as if I were hearing only every other stroke. I’m pretty sure that if all three units were on the point this one would be setting off alarm bells or something. But how about 135 cars back? How long before they realize they’re dragging around dead weight?
Carl, it sounds like that unit might have plugged fuel filters. It might not ring the alarm, but the engineer would probably be seeing eratic or reduced loading on the DP screen. If it would ring the alarm, the engr on the head end only knows that there is a problem. If it stops loading completely, you can go into the unit info screen and check if it’s maintaing main reservoir pressure. If it is, it’s still running. If not, it’s probably shut down unless the problem is that the compressor quit. Someone needs to get on the engine to find out what’s wrong.
The feel of the train especially at the first noticable hill will start giving clues. Usually it’s not the DP (you can see what it’s loading) but a trailing unit on the head end that’s not performing. The North Platte crews hand off those coal trains with the second engine on the head end sometimes isolated for fuel conservation. They usually tell us that or we usually check them. If not the first good hill gives a clue in that the lead and DP are loading higher than normal.
It’s really not that much different then when a trailing unit in the lead consist starts ringing the alarm bell. You know there’s a problem,but not exactly what it is, or where if you have multiple trailing units.
Jeff