Locomotive

Summary

A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, motor coach, railcar or power car; the use of these self-propelled vehicles is increasingly common for passenger trains, but rare for freight. Traditionally, locomotives pulled trains from the front. However, push-pull operation has become common, where the train may have a locomotive (or locomotives) at the front, at the rear, or at each end. Most recently railroads have begun adopting DPU or distributed power. The front may have one or two locomotives followed by a mid-train locomotive that is controlled remotely from the lead unit. TOC Etymology The word locomotive originates from the Latin loco 'from a place', ablative of locus 'place', and the Medieval Latin motivus 'causing motion', and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, which was first used in 1814

Official source

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locomotive

About this result

This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.

Related publications (8)

Related publications

Related people (1)

Related people

Related units

No results

Related units

Related concepts (47)

Related concepts

Related courses (1)

Related courses

Related lectures (1)

Related lectures

, ,

The Locomotive Assignment Problem (LAP) is a class of planning and scheduling problems solved by assigning a fleet of locomotives to a network of trains. In the planning versions of the LAP, the type of consist (a group of linked locomotives) assigned to each train in a given schedule is determined. We introduce an optimization model (called consists selection) that precedes the planning LAP solution and determines the set of consist types. This selection leads to solutions that are characterized by potential savings in terms of overall fueling cost and are easier to handle in the routing phase. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd.

Elsevier2015

A Mathematical Model for the Locomotive Refueling Problem

Prem Kumar

This problem corresponds to refueling locomotives at different station yards during the course of its journey. Locomotive tanks have a fixed fuel capacity and prices of fuel vary across yards. In addition, there is a fixed cost for hiring a refueling truck at a yard and every refueling stop that the locomotive makes. Locomotives can power different train sets during a cyclical planning horizon running 14 days. The objective of this exercise is to minimize the total fuel costs fixed and operational for a given set of locomotives, trains and yards. In addition, there are numerous constraints relating to refueling, locomotive tank capacity, refueling truck capacity etc. This problem has similarity to the network flow problem. We formulate this problem as a Mixed Integer Program (MIP) and present our experience in the following sections.

2010

Power Quality Application of Hybrid Drivetrain

Hardi Hõimoja

This paper presents a study on the power conditioning features of hybrid powertrain, especially regarding diesel-electric locomotives. Equipped with an embarked energy buffer for diesel generator support and utility grid interface, such a locomotive can be considered as a plug-in series hybrid vehicle. The driveline inductive components, like generator and motor windings, and capacitive components like dc link capacitors can be used to provide STATCOM functions, and the energy buffer can be used for short-term grid support. The co-action of power electronics circuitries and diesel generator gives a possibility to observe the locomotive as a mobile versatile power plant for special rolling stock and emergency supply. With high power levels ranging from few hundred kilowatts to several megawatts, the locomotives can participate in large-scale power conditioning at standstill, bringing revenues to the operators even “off-line”.

2012