ECP: How soon?

U.S. railroads are still testing the ECP brake waters. Suppliers are ready to help them dive in.

By Marybeth Luczak, Managing Editor

In November, Wabtec Railway Electronics commissioned a cable-based ECP brake system on unit coal train that runs in continuous service between coal mines in Corbin, Ky., and a Georgia Power plant in Stilesboro, Ga. CSXT operates the trainset, which is made up of 95 cars (owned by Southern Co.) and two GE AC4400 locomotives. Among the instruments found in the locomotive cab are an ECP display screen (pictured above, on far left) and ECP brake controller (see bottom right of the console), which is mounted in front of the pneumatic automatic brake handle. Wabtec railcar hardware (pictured below) includes an ECP car control device (on upper left), car ID/junction box (on upper right), and ECP manifold on the pipe bracket (on lower left).
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Photos from Wabtec railway electronics

Ask the question, "Are we there yet?" when it comes to the U.S. railroads' adoption of ECP (electronically-controlled pneumatic) braking, and the answer is "almost." The wait continues. "Ironically, even though the development of ECP was initiated by AAR-member railroads, there seems to be more overseas interest in ECP than domestic," says Fred Carlson, principal investigator at AAR-affiliate Transportation Technology Center, Inc.

BHP Iron Ore (Australia), Spoornet (South Africa), and Quebec Cartier Mining (Canada) took a gamble on ECP braking technology and won, proving its many advantages in revenue service. These roads have experienced improved train handling, reduced trip time, decreased braking distance, reduced in-train forces, consistent, graduated brake release, reduced railcar maintenance, and reduced fuel consumption.

Why are U.S. railroads still on the fence about accepting ECP braking technology? AAR standards are still under development, and economics and logistics cause much trepidation. Retrofitting the 1.5 million-plus freight cars and locomotives in North American interchange service is no small feat.

"There is a still a sizable percentage of railroad officials who will not be persuaded by anything but positive in-service results," Carlson says, so Class I's and regionals are working with suppliers to set up their own ECP braking test sites.

CSX Transportation comes onboard

In November, Wabtec Railway Electronics commissioned a cable-based ECP brake system on a unit coal train that runs in continuous service between coal mines in Corbin, Ky., and a Georgia Power plant in Stilesboro, Ga. CSX Transportation operates the trainset, which is made up of 95 cars (owned by Southern Co.) and two GE AC4400 locomotives. The overlay installation (ECP brakes are installed in addition to conventional brakes) is similar to that used on Spoornet's 200-car trainset, which transports 66 million tons of export coal each year along the Ermelo-Richards Bay Line (RA, Sept. 2000, p. 73). Both of these ECP applications have highly-integrated onboard control systems, but the CSXT/Southern Co. system is also integrated with a control console screen and an event recorder.

The CSXT/Southern Co. application is said to be the first ECP braking operation to use a new powerline transceiver, the PLT-22 from Echelon. (PLTs allow cable-based ECP systems to communicate between cars and locomotives.) Such suppliers as Wabtec, New York Air Brake, and ZefTron originally used Echelon's PLT-10A, but after it was made obsolete last year, they were forced to modify their designs to accommodate Echelon's PLT-20 or its newer PLT-22. (The PLT-22 is backward compatible with the PLT-20 and includes additional functions that are not required for ECP brake applications.) Testing of the PLT-20 is expected to be completed in the first quarter of this year. Following this, AAR will update its cable-based ECP specifications (S-4200 series) to protect against future obsolescence. "If the PLT-20 is chosen to replace the PLT-10A, the changes will be very minor," says TTCI's Carlson.

In another "first," the CSXT/Southern Co. application "is operating part of its route with a pusher locomotive," says Robert Kull, director-freight car systems for Wabtec Railway Electronics. "This is done with an ECP version of our TrainLink EOT unit, combined with our HelperLink unit on the pusher locomotive. The ECP EOT unit reads ECP braking commands from the ECP trainline and translates them to radio messages, which are sent to HelperLink. HelperLink then provides locomotive pneumatic braking on the pusher to match the ECP application. This allows non-ECP-equipped pusher locomotives to operate with ECP trains and supports 'release on the fly' operations since the brake pipe does not need to be connected."

The goal of the project, Kull says, is to collect field data on fuel savings as well as wheel and brake shoe wear. He expects to see fuel savings of at least 5%. So far, the ECP braking system is performing well. "The biggest challenge we've had is getting crews trained to operate the system," he says. "There are three crew change points on the CSXT trip so there are quite a few different crews who can potentially operate the train."

Wabtec's Spoornet overlay ECP brake application continues to run smoothly. Spoornet has reported reductions in cycle time (10% savings), brake shoe maintenance, derailments, stopping distance (58% shorter), and in-train forces. Due to such positive results, "Spoornet feels there is a good economic case for extending the ECP braking system to the rest of its operations," Kull says. System expansion is planned for later this year.

BNSF extends the playing field

This month, Burlington Northern and Santa Fe will start field testing an overlay of New York Air Brake's cable-based ECP braking system (EP-60) using distributed power. The system, integrated with a PLT-10A and a Wabtec Railway Electronics event recorder, will run on a 130-car unit coal train in the Powder River Basin. When the distributed-power test is finished during this year's first quarter, BNSF plans to operate five ECP-equipped coal trains in the Power River Basin. The Class I has contracted with NYAB to outfit 85 EMD SD70MACs and 600 coal cars with EP-60 for the service. According to TTCI's Carlson, AAR has "all but completed a specification for distributed motive power using the cable-based ECP trainline."

Presently, one BNSF taconite train equipped with an overlay EP-60 system runs daily in Superior, Wis. From an operator's point of view, train handling is excellent on this line, says Bryan McLaughlin, EP-60 product manager for NYAB. However, data collection has been a challenge since the train operates in both conventional pneumatic and ECP braking modes, depending on the availability of ECP-equipped locomotives.

NYAB's stand-alone ECP installation at Quebec Cartier Mining has been operating for three years. Once NYAB completes in-house testing of the PLT-22 during this year's first quarter, it will upgrade all of QCM's ECP systems to use the PLT-22. QCM recently ordered 12 new GE AC4400 locomotives equipped with NYAB's EP-60, using the PLT-22, for delivery in first-quarter 2002. This order "is one of the first of its kind from an OEM," says McLaughlin. The locomotives will be outfitted with a head end unit, integrated visual display, and event recorders. Since QCM began using ECP brake technology, it has reported 7% fuel savings, 35-40% increase in brake shoe life, and near-elimination of in-train forces. After the 12 new locomotives enter revenue service, QCM will publish an ECP operations manual, whose use is expected to help generate additional savings.

To further improve its ECP braking system, NYAB is now evaluating new high-volume, lightweight car control devices.

Regionals enter the mix

Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range plans to replace its 50-year-old, 1,500-car fleet with "new generation" cars in 2003 and 2004, says Michael J. Urie, DM&IR superintendent-cars. The regional would like these new cars to be ECP-ready, so it began testing ZefTron's emulation control valve, the Chameleon™, last fall in non-ECP or conventional pneumatic service. The valve is installed on one car in a 58-car consist of 100-ton side-dump cars, which are used in captive service hauling limestone from a port in Duluth, Minn., to U.S. Steel's Minntac plant in Mountain Iron, Minn. DM&IR is also testing ZefTron's onboard power generator, which is designed to power the radio frequency/ECP or emulation mode. How is the valve working? "It's performing extremely well under cold temperatures, and DM&IR is monitoring it with every trip," says ZefTron General Manager John D. Anderson.

According to DM&IR's Urie, the regional is an excellent candidate for an ECP test, since it runs two air systems on many of its cars to ensure safe braking on grades of up to 3%. "We would like to perform an ECP test-once we get the money committed for one train-in 2002," he says. However, "cost is a deciding factor."

With ZefTron's Chameleon™ valve, an overlay ECP system installation is not required. DM&IR does not have to outfit every car with ECP right away, thereby easing fleet migration to ECP technology. "If a car equipped with the emulation valve is sent out in an ECP train and is later picked up by a train that is not ECP-equipped, it will not be a problem-the emulator valve works both ways," says Urie.

ZefTron began revenue service operation of a cable-based ECP system with an emulation control valve in November 1999 in Prewitt, N.M. (RA, Jan. 2000, p. 53). Now entering its second year of testing, Western Fuels Association, Inc., continues to run a 52-car unit coal train powered by three EMD SD40-2 locomotives between a power plant and a coal mine "without any issues and zero out-of-service time," says ZefTron's Anderson. "Similar to NYAB's ECP installation at QCM, we found an increase in brake shoe wear and fuel consumption as new engineers joined the team and adjusted to the new technology," he says. "But it's like buying a new sports car-the novelty doesn't wear off too quickly." Because of this, Western Fuels Association is only beginning to generate data on fuel conservation and maintenance savings.

Full-scale production

After running a 240-car, 37,500-ton iron ore train more than 25 million car-miles, BHP Iron Ore completed its pilot test of GE Harris-Harmon Railway Technology's EPx™ radio-based ECP braking system in September (RA, Oct. 2000, p. 51). The system maintained communication throughout the train using TrainTalk™ wireless communications protocol that simultaneously relays brake commands to each railcar using high-frequency radio signals. "We were extremely pleased with the performance of our first generation ECP brake system at BHP Iron Ore," says Bryan A. Dougherty, product manager-railcar systems for GE Harris-Harmon. "We found significant reductions in stopping distance (53% better than distributed power-only-equipped trains) and trip time, and found that the system operated very well in tunnel and rotary dumper operations."

To move its technology farther forward, GE Harris-Harmon has designed a next-generation EPx™ Universal™ Control Valve (an emulation valve that is car-sensor ready). It replaces the first generation's axle generator and battery with a "self-contained air power system" to improve reliability and maintainability and to reduce cost. The system uses a "negligible amount of brake pipe air, which is converted to electrical energy and stored in ultra capacitors." (ZefTron is attempting to store power in a similar fashion: "We are looking for a system that will never need outside charging," says ZefTron President and CEO Richard F. Murphy.)

GE Harris-Harmon expects to take the EPx™ Universal™ Control Valve into full production after testing it internally this year, undergoing the AAR certification process in early 2002, and performing select pilot programs thereafter. "Our goal is improving reliability and getting costs out," says Dougherty. "Most of 2001 will be dedicated primarily to reliability growth testing and highly-accelerated life testing."

AAR's radio-based ECP specifications (S-4300 series) are still under development. They were to be completed in technical form around year-end 2000, and a Failure Modes Effects and Criticality Analysis is planned for the first half of 2001.

The future of ECP

Where is the ECP braking market headed? "Initially, bulk commodity unit trains using stand-alone ECP will be a natural fit," says TTCI's Carlson. Intermodal equipment will be outfitted next with overlay or emulator ECP braking systems, he says, "until enough of the fleet is equipped to justify stand-alone ECP operation. When limited-mileage cars like 10,000-mile-a-year tank cars get equipped is anybody's guess."

Emulation valves may be one way to move the conversion process along, according to some suppliers. "Emulation is the stepping stone in migration to ECP braking," says ZefTron's Murphy.

"What customers want is a bi-functional product-one that can be used in ECP or conventional pneumatic braking modes," says GE Harris-Harmon's Dougherty. "They want the technology built into the product because they don't want to pay for it later. We, as suppliers, have to make the question of ROI (return on investment) easy by pricing ECP technology the same as conventional technology."

Suppliers still expect the market to break open as test sites spread, but an overall conversion remains in the distance.