Railway locomotive fuel saving arrangement

摘要

This invention discloses a method and device for reducing fuel consumption by a locomotive system comprised of a plurality of tandem diesel locomotives electrically interconnected so that one of the units is a lead unit and the remaining units are trailing units. In particular, the fuel saver arrangement of the present invention is capable of selectively placing one or more of the locomotives in the system in a "throttle one" power position without causing any significant reduction in the operating efficiency of the system's safety equipment. The locomotive is placed in the throttle one power position by means of switching relays that are operable to override the normal throttle control circuit of the locomotive. These relays respond to a fuel save signal that is generated in the control box located on the lead unit. The control box includes a fuel save switch operable to initiate and terminate the fuel save operation and a unit selector switch operable to select the locomotive to be reduced in power. Each locomotive within the system is also provided with a fuel saver set-up switch which electrically interconnects all of the diesel units of the system. The unit selector switch and the fuel saver set-up switches are multiple position gang switches which operate in conjunction with each other to provide the fuel save signal to the proper locomotive to be reduced in power by means of the unused train line wires and jumper cables present in a normal locomotive system.