 |
Re: BNSF Now Testing Battery Locomotive - Barstow - Stockton
Author: FUD
Date: 01-07-2021 - 04:33
As I understand previous discussions of the unit, it's semi-autonomous and can determine on its own when to lightly drag for regen on the flats. When it's doing so, the other locomotives will need to drag a bit harder. There's no actual manual control outside of normal MU - the trip optimizer software determines what happens where and when based on power demand and availability.
These test/demo runs are intended to allow tuning of the software, among other things. As we know from hybrid cars, tuning the system so electric and gas (diesel) cooperate rather than fight each other (and the brakes) doesn't always work the way you expect it to the first time. It took Toyota 3 generations of Prius to get the drivetrain dialed in to where there aren't many abrupt power and braking transitions, and still there are cases where the electric side may drain a noticeable amount of power to recover a normal charge state (which is usually not fully charged, so there's room to accept regen from braking) after the battery gets run down. In this case, there's less communication between the diesels and the battery side than in a fully integrated hybrid because only normal MU commands are used; tuning the software is critical to making it feel like just another diesel in the consist.
Most things work in theory. The trick is to get them to work in practice. And having typed all that, why am I now thinking of the 737 MAX...?
These test/demo runs are intended to allow tuning of the software, among other things. As we know from hybrid cars, tuning the system so electric and gas (diesel) cooperate rather than fight each other (and the brakes) doesn't always work the way you expect it to the first time. It took Toyota 3 generations of Prius to get the drivetrain dialed in to where there aren't many abrupt power and braking transitions, and still there are cases where the electric side may drain a noticeable amount of power to recover a normal charge state (which is usually not fully charged, so there's room to accept regen from braking) after the battery gets run down. In this case, there's less communication between the diesels and the battery side than in a fully integrated hybrid because only normal MU commands are used; tuning the software is critical to making it feel like just another diesel in the consist.
Most things work in theory. The trick is to get them to work in practice. And having typed all that, why am I now thinking of the 737 MAX...?
