Nostalgia & History > Bad traction motor. 12-31-2010

I use to host the ATCS for the south end of the CSX CE&D sub and on one night CSX Q588 had a traction motor lock up near Princeton, IN. I set up my camera to film the ATCS screen and have my scanner feed also playing the radio chatter along with the traffic on the sub. Q588 was north of the NS crossing at Alliance siding. 
Next video is the traction motor getting taken out and an idler axle installed. Pardon the shakey camera work. I had just got the video camera for Christmas and did not yet have a tripod. 12-31-2010 was a warm & windy day and there was a tornado watch out for our area that afternoon. Thankfully no tornadoes but did have a bad storm later that evening.

Brian V.
Vincennes, IN



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/25 07:03 by CSX2605.

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what do those weights on those sidebooms weigh? TIA

The motor locked up -- what's that mean?

timz Wrote:
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> The motor locked up -- what's that mean?
It is one axle on the locomotive that takes the electricity from the generator and uses that power to start the locomotive moving. it is basically an electric motor and the windings in the motor burn up causing the motor to not turn anymore. 
This happened on CSX I025 here at the farm in 2018. Motor burned up, locked up and put smoke in the cab. That's why the medics were there.

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A DC motor?

Do AC motors do that?

timz Wrote:
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> A DC motor?
>
> Do AC motors do that?
>
> they both can do that.

For information, that's an AC moter.

Sam

So AC motor rotors have windings?
I imagined they were just solid metal.

CSX2605 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> timz Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The motor locked up -- what's that mean?
> It is one axle on the locomotive that takes the
> electricity from the generator and uses that power
> to start the locomotive moving. it is basically an
> electric motor and the windings in the motor burn
> up causing the motor to not turn anymore. 
> This happened on CSX I025 here at the farm in
> 2018. Motor burned up, locked up and put smoke in
> the cab. That's why the medics were there.

I have not had that scenario happen in my career, the more common issues were:

Failure of the commutator or pinion end bearings of the armature shaft. At one employer the PE bearings were being replaced under basic overhaul, but not the CE bearings and that caused lock up issues. Failure of either can cause a lock up of the axle. My repair specs for a basic overhaul specified replacement of both.

Support bearing failure. This was due to inadequate support bearing journal oil, contaminated oil or improper torqueing and clearances of the bearing and axle. More modern AC motors with roller support bearings (BTR's - Bearing / Tapered Roller) also need proper reconditioning and can seize. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/01/25 08:46 by train1275.