On Wednesday, Feb. 1, BNSF began piloting a new fuel-saving technology, the Consist ManagerTM System designed by General Electric (GE).

BNSF is one of the first railroads to pilot this technology, which should reduce fuel burn by 1-3 percent on each locomotive consist where it is installed.

Consist Manager (CM) is a computerized control that individually adjusts the throttle settings for the lead and trailing locomotives to ensure each is operating at the most fuel-efficient setting. On a conventional train, all locomotives in the consist operate at the same notch. With CM, the computer allows the lead and trailing locomotives to operate at different notch settings and automatically selects the settings that will give the engineer the total power he expects and the best fuel economy.

"Individual locomotives operate more efficiently at a higher locomotive throttle position," says John Quilty, assistant vice president, Operating Practices. "Throttle position 7 or 8, for instance, is about 4 percent more fuel efficient than throttle positions 3 or 4. With CM, the train crew uses a Master Controller to control the total consist power and speed, but CM automatically calculates the most efficient way to distribute that power across each locomotive in the consist. This may call for lowering the notch position on the lead locomotive, while the remaining locomotives operate in a higher throttle position, or vice versa."

GE