Development of a locomotive engine condition monitoring system

This project involved the development and testing of a prototype locomotive engine repair shop diagnostic tool (RDT) based on the Instantaneous Crankshaft Angular Velocity (ICAV) technology. It was envisioned that this repair shop diagnostic tool would be used in locomotive repair shops to assist maintenance personnel. This tool was intended to provide an efficient method for detecting the cylinder to cylinder power balance of the engine. The objective was to minimize time spent on assessing the condition of correctly operating locomotives, as well as on assessing the condition of locomotives with engine fault conditions. It was anticipated that such a tool would be able to diagnose engine faults by pinpointing any cylinder(s) requiring further examination. In addition, it was expected that cylinder faults which could be missed using traditional inspection techniques, would be detected by the tool, potentially contributing to improved locomotive energy efficiency.