Western Railroad Discussion > Locotrol out west

In the 1960's the Southern Railway in the Southeast used to run long trains through the "Rathole" south from Cincinnati and other locations. Some of these trains would employ remote controlled mid-train helpers equipped with "Locotrol", the predecessor to today's "Distributed Power" (DPU) equipped units. Other eastern railroads also used this technology as well.
Locotrol came about through the North Electric Company, then it was purchased by Harris Controls, and then General Electric Transportation. Question is what railroads in the west were early users of Locotrol? I do remember the Santa Fe used this technology on their York Canyon coal trains from York Canyon, New Mexico to Fontana, California. Santa Fe also use Locotrol on longer freight trains through the Southwest.
What other railroads used Locotrol in the west, if any? Union Pacific? Great Northern, Northern Pacific? Southern Pacific? Any rails on this site have experience with early Locotrol? Thanks for any answers.

SantaFeRuss

The MILW used Locotrol on trains 263 and 264.

Southern Pacific's 8300 series SD40T-2s have Locotrol, or Locotrol II.

I might be able to shed some light on Santa Fe's use of Locotrol. I was an instructor at the Locomotive Engineer Training Center in Topeka when they decided to upgrade to it from the old “105” Remote Controlled Equipment (RCE).

A fellow instructor, C.A. Johnson, was given the task to write the manual for “Locotrol II” and he enlisted my help whenever I was available. We had the technical data from the manufactures but had to put it into an instructional format for our engineers to be able to understand and apply it for train operation. We were probably two-thirds done when C.A. left the training center for a different position in Texas. Well guess who got the job of completing the project. I am really indebted to him for his work in getting the job going. I just had to keep following the path he had been blazing.

The Santa Fe had been operating the old “105” RCE on unit sulphur and potash trains from the Carlsbad, NM area to Galveston, TX for several years and they choose to implement the new Locotrol II equipment in that corridor and wanted me to be there for its maiden voyage to see how it worked. This was in 1986. So......flew to Amarillo, drove to Clovis, NM and met up with D. Bailey, the road foreman, and we rode an empty potash train to Carlsbad with all the power on the headend.

We then assembled a 120 car loaded potash train with the Locotrol II equipped units cut in 2/3rd of the way back. Guess what? It went off without a hitch. The only problem was I had to listen to Darwin Bailey brag about those great GE locomotives we had whereas I was always partial to EMDs.

A few months later they closed down the Santa Fe training center in anticipation of the SP/SF merger and the only place available for me to go was Temple, TX. Hello Locotrol again on the sulphur and potash trains from Brownwood to Bellville, TX as well as grain trains from Cleburne to Bellville.

A big problem with the Locotrol II equipment was that they had built in too many redundant safety items which caused the trains to go into emergency whenever something wasn't EXACTLY what the equipment required. They began removing some of the unnecessary ones and then we were finally able to operate the trains with little trouble. I don't remember the frequency of the Locotrol trains but I would guess 1 to 2 sulphur trains and 2 to 3 potash trains per week. The number of grain trains varied greatly.

I could go on and on about all the problems of “linking” up the leader to the remote but this is already much more than you probably wanted by your original questions.

Have a Blessed Day!

Mark Cole

Pacific Great Eastern P.G.E. was an early user [1971} of "Remotes" in British Columbia.Cheers

GREENGROCER Wrote:
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> Pacific Great Eastern P.G.E. was an early user
> [1971} of "Remotes" in British Columbia.Cheers

Wasn't Canadian Pacific another early user, with all their unit trains?

mapboy

Canadian Pacific, Northern Pacific, and Burlington Northern used Locotrol also.

A few images of Locotrol I control console. BC Rail started with Locotrol in the very early 1970's with some units set up to lead and RCC (remote control car) as the receiving slave MU'd to units working as remote control. Eventually when BC Rail bought new GE Dash-8 units, they were equipped with Locotrol II and all the older Locotrol I was discontinued. Eventually we got the newer DPU system and it was made compatible with the Locotrol II. Doug
image one of the console
image two, pushbutton air brake console
image three console.

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image 4, view of the primitive console, no fancy digital electronics
image 5 of a RCC car, ex CP 4455, also some RCC cars were from BN
image 6 of M420-B RCL, remote control locomotive, had the receiving equipment and was used as slave unit.

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On the Santa Fe, we used the Locotrol quite a bit on solid unit grain trains out of Emporia, Wichita, Newton, Topeka, and Kansas City. I was on the very first one they ever put together and ran south out of Superior, Nebraska in Feb of '83. It was a 4 axle branch then, and we had a GE 7486 as a leader, with an EMD 3813 for a receiver. The even numbered equipped units were leaders, the odd numbered ones were recievers. I think the first Locotrol II's I saw was on the 9500 class GE's.

Kansas City Southern was also a Locotrol user.

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hoggerdoug Wrote:
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> ...
> image two, pushbutton air brake console
> ...


I absolutely HATED those "push button" air brakes. I used them on UP's C41's when they brought them to Eugene for early DP operations after the SP "merger" and I never felt comfortable with them.

Railbaron Wrote:
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> hoggerdoug Wrote:
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> > ...
> > image two, push-button air brake console
> > ...
>
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> I absolutely HATED those "push button" air brakes.
> I used them on UP's C41's when they brought them
> to Eugene for early DP operations after the SP
> "merger" and I never felt comfortable with them.

Originally, the two push-button for the automatic brake, push one to apply, push the other to release. Eventually BC Rail installed at ring on the automatic release button and it had to be pulled instead of pushed to release the air. Save some confusion when reaching for the buttons. Although, the push button to apply, after an initial brake application, the button was usually accurate for trimming down a pound at a time if so desired. The orange buttons were for independent apply & release.
Attached image of the automatic brake console for Locotrol II.
Doug

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The "newer" version that had the "Automatic" as a push to apply, pull to release, is what the UP C41's had but I just never felt comfortable using buttons to control the train - give me a real handle any day.

What system was used on Raton Pass route?

tomstp Wrote:
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> What system was used on Raton Pass route?

Locotrol II.

The leader and receiver equipped units were not captive to any particular service, so making sure you had them where and when you needed them, was one of the challenges of power distribution at Santa Fe during that era.

UP used Locotrol in the Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon between Nampa ID and Hinkle OR in the late 70's. The equipment was in their SD45's, numbered in the double digits, and had what looked like a pool table antenna over the locomotive cab's roof.