(The Erie Times-News posted the following article by Peter Panepento on its website on April 22.)
ERIE, Ohio — Idling locomotives cost railroad companies $120 million annually.
That figure is a small fraction of the $4 billion spent annually by railroads to run their locomotives.
But it represents wasted money — money burned when locomotives are literally going nowhere.
Engineers at Lawrence Park-based GE Transportation Systems Inc. have created a technology platform the company said is able to help railroads save that money by automatically turning off locomotive engines when they are sitting idle.
The product called Auto Engine Start Stop is an offshoot of an existing technology platform that’s already available for about 10,000 locomotives made by GE Transportation Systems.
Since launching the technology in 2001, GE Transportation Systems has installed about 2,000 AESS systems.
On Monday, the company announced it is expanding the technology for use on locomotives made by its competitors.
The move gives GE Transportation Systems access to a much larger market, because its competitors account for about 61.5 percent of the 26,000 locomotives in use in North America.
It also marks another step in the company’s shift into service, which accounts for about 70 percent of its annual revenues.
“This fits well into our overall strategy,” said Vish Palekar, GE Transportation Systems’ services-new product introduction manager. “We want to continue to add money back into our customers’ pockets.”
Auto Engine Start Stop was engineered and developed at Building 60 at the company’s Lawrence Park locomotive plant and will be produced in Erie County, Palekar said.
It is a package of computer software and hardware that detects when a locomotive is idle and automatically shuts down the engine when the locomotive’s oil temperature falls below a specified level.
The engine is automatically restarted when oil temperature rises or the engine needs power.
“The biggest bang for this product is reducing fuel use,” Palekar said. “But it also cuts down on noise and emissions.”
Fuel conservation and emissions control systems have become big business for GE Transportation Systems.
The company recently rolled out the prototypes for its new Evolution Series locomotives, which meet 2005 federal Environmental Protection Agency emissions standards two years early.
The Evolution Series — which took six years and $200 million to develop will ultimately replace the company’s existing locomotive models and is designed to reduce emissions by about 40 percent.
GE Transportation Systems also has launched a series of products for existing locomotives that, coupled with AESS, can help railroads reduce fuel costs by 10 percent, the company said.