Design of Remote Controller of Multiple Unit Locomoltives for Coal Freight

Train in South Sumatera Indonesia

Yanuarsyah Haroen', Tri Desmana R?

Department of Electrical Engineering, Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia

wagon as a new configuration raises air brake and

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Abstract- Coal demand for Power Station in west of Java
island and the new one in Lampung province increases mechanical coupler probl:ms.
significantly every year. It's transported by freight train
from Tanjung Enim mine in South Sumatra towards
Tarahan port in Lampung. Due to some lack of railway
infrastructure and rolling stock as well as single line track, ' - ,
long siding, number of locomotive and air brake problem 2 LaformtiwS 48 "
then it is not possible to operate long train with multiple unit
more than three locomotives consecutively in order to Fig I. Standard Formation of Coal Train
increase the transport coal capacity. To overcome air brake
problem in multiple unit with 3 locomotives then one To overcome these, the 3 d locomotive and coal wagon are

___
locomotive should be placed away from the others and this
one considered as a slave. Logic control of speed, dynamic placed as well as shown in fig. 2.
brake signals, forward, reverse and air brake status will be
conditioned and processed by microcontroller and sent from
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master to slave via DSSS transceiver. y_i .~--,-_--,

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Fig 2. Propaid Wain configuration

I. INTRODUCTION
Adding one or more locomotives with their consecutive
The increasing demand of coal in Indonesia during last wagons is not found feasible due to not-supporting
couples of years is shown in table 1 amount of the crossing :mplacements within this single
track train path.
TABLE I With the new train configuration, there are still 23
THE GROWTH OF COAL TRANSPORTATION IN SOUTH
SUMATRA
crossing emplacements available but if 4 locomotives and
92 wagons configuration is used, the train has only 4
crossing emplacements.
YeVr Tone
The 3'* locomotive (as a ,slave) will be controlled by using
p" Redimtion radio transceiver from 1" locomotive (as a master).
1996 6.222.817 5.916.850 2.437.742
1997 7.5w.m 6.879.200 1.837.939
11. MUTUAL
MULTIPLE:UNIT LOCOMOTIVEOPERATION
1998 7.963.836 7497,300 3.084.786

1999 7.596.616 7.232.100 2.979.626 To obtain information about the possibility to control the
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~~~~~ 0.m 7~I 16.I 00
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2931~x33 3'd locomotive remotely, w e must find the control signals
and the appropriate pins of coupling cable. of the
2001 7.942.m 7.068.750 2.912.344
locomotive. From the terminal control cable connector.
2002 8.300.000 No daw Nodm we have found the prominent parameters are i.e. :
Engine valves A, B.. C.. D related to pins number
I

This problem will he solved by rearranging the train
configuration so its capacity will he able to meet the need
of coal.
The current coal'train configuration is shown in fig. I
where train is hauled by two adjacent Diesel Electric
locomotives CC-202 (mutual multiple unit locomotives)
which is one is controlled by means of control cable from
master one.
According to the test result, the new train configuration
with 3cd locomotive and appropriate additional number of
15, 12, 7, and 3 are responsible to the train
throttling speed mechanism.
Forward -Reverse related to pins 8 and 9, are
responsible to change the direction of the train
movement.
Dynamic brake related to pins no 17, 20, 21 and
24, are responsible to control the dynamic brake
process and effort.
Air braking mechanism is directly done mechanically,
therefore we have to hiow the detail description of the

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mechanism and imitate the mechanism using some D. Dvnamic Brake
additional electric devices.
The configuration of armature windings of DC Series
A . Excitation svstem traction motor is changed to 2s - 3P while it does the
dynamic braking. It is set up as separate excitation and all
The block diagram of excitation system in the of the field windings are connected in series.
locomotives can he shown in fig. 3.

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Dynamic Brake Set up (pin 17)
Before activating the dynamic brake setup pin, the
dynamic brake handle should be in zero position.
Activating this pin will energize the appropriate solenoid
valve and will connect the rate control (RC) and dynamic
braking regulator (DR) modules. This is the preparation
step in dynamic braking process.
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The field winding of the traction motor now is connected
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to main generator via the controllable rectifier. The
Fig. 3 . Excitation system blockdiagram
current flowing in the field winding will determine the
effort of dynamic braking.
Energy is supplied by the diesel engine coupled to the 3-
phase main generator. Alternating current produced is Dynamic Brake Requesr (pin 24)
converted to direct current by the rectifier before applied The voltage level of dynamic brake request pin is an
to the DC traction motors. analog one and proportional to position of dynamic brake
The field winding of the main generator is independently level handle. This voltage will be used as the reference for
supplied by the companion alternator through the SCR- triggering the gate electrode of controllable rectifier to
based controlled rectifier. supply the field winding of traction motor which is now
act as a generator.
This DC traction machine will convert the mechanical
B. Throttling Speed
energy into electric energy which will he wasted through
Throttling speed has 8 steps with each single step related the resistor grid.
to appropriate energized solenoid as shown in table 2.
Dvnamic Brake Warning and Dynamic Brake Exciration
TABLE 2 If the current flowing in the resistor grid is too high, the
THROlTLE POSITION VS ENERGIZED SOLENOID dynamic brake warning signal (20) will appear and
indicator lamp will turn on: Furthermore, the dynamic
Thmttle Pin I 5 Pin 12 Pm 1 Pi 3 brake excitation pin (21) will be activated and releases the
(Valve A) (Valve B) (Valve C) (Valve D) main field contactor.
Position
1 0 0 0 0 All control information mentioned above are electrical,
2 I 0 0 0 almost all are logics, except the analog dynamic brake
3 0 0 I 0 request voltage.
4 I 0 I 0
5 0 I I I
6 I I I I E. Air Braking mechanism in ilfutrral Multiple unit
7 0 I I 0 Locomotives

In table 2, it is shown that the throttling mechanism is

done by setting the proper combination of energized
solenoid. The diesel engine speed varies by the change of
the handle position, occurring different generated voltage.
This information - the logical combination, will be
treated as the throttling data.

C. Forward -Reverse

Terminal pins no. 8 and 9 have a role to control the Fig. 4. Schematic diagnm of air brake system in muNal multiple mil
direction of train and are complementary each other. 10~0motive.

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The schematic diagram of the air brake of the train in microcontroller module 1.0avoid the wrong combination
mutual multiple-unit configuration is shown in fig. 4. The occurs.
system is fully mechanical but it should be well known in
order to control air brake in remote locomotive in the new
train configuration.
Generally, this locomotive has one main reservoir (MR),
Control Valve (CR) and Brake Seal. The main reservoir is
the source of air supplying the whole brake pipe along the
train through the control valve (CV). The pressure in MR
is kept constant 10 bars CV will control this pressure so
that the pressure in the brake pipe will be reduced to
maximum 5 bars.
The braking operation is done by changing the air brake
handle level. CV will regulate the brake pipe pressure to a
proper level controlled from the air brake handle. The
lower the pressure in the brake pipe the higher braking
effort will occur. To un-brake the train, the pressure in the
brake pipe should be raised to 5 bar. This mechanism is Fig. 5. System block ,of remote locomotive ~ o n u ~ l l e r
called releasing.
The braking problem that mentioned in the introduction
part of this paper is related to releasing mechanism. E . Dynamic Braking
According to fig. 3, MR2 is not fully functional to the
releasing mechanism, because in mutual multiple unit Dynamic brake request and air brake signal originally are
operation, the air exhausted from MR2 will not flow analog ones. It should tie converted to digital signal in
directly to the brake pipe, but it will flow through the pipe lead locomotive and once received in trail locomotive, it
which also used by MRI. Therefore, it takes long enough will be converted to analog signal to drive analog
to fill the entire brake pipe so that the air pressure in the reference of controllable rectifier to supply the field
very back of the train reaches 5 bars. winding of traction motor which functioned as generator
If 3-consecutive locomotives followed by 69 wagons in the braking mechanism. Dynamic brake set up,
configuration is used, it will take very long to fill the excitation, and warning signals will be considered as a
brake pipe. And also, according to the test, the air simple digital signal.
pressure in the back of the train never reached 5 bars due
to pipe leak. C. Air Brake System Modrficaiion
This is the reason why the 3d locomotive and its wagons
should be located away from the current train. It can be The pressure transducer which is installed in equalizing
stated that 3d locomotive will be responsible for the pipe in lead locomotive will give an appropriate level
releasing mechanism only for its own train. braking pressure in the train. This signal will be processed
and sent to the 3d remOte locomotive by the transceiver.
After then, this signal will be amplified to activate
111. DESIGN
OF CONTROLLER FOR THE REMOTE MULTIPLE electro-pneumatic contiollable valve for air braking
mlT mechanism in the remote trail locomotive.

Remote control system for the locomotives is shown in

fig.5 '
The control process can be explained as follows.

A. Throttling Speed

All possible signal combinations of throttle speed coming

from master locomotive based on 74 volt DC will be
conditioned and isolated as an input to microcontroller
module. This information will be formed as a data
package and transmitted to slave locomotive by a DSSS
transceiver. Fail safe routine check is done in order to
have security in data transmission. Once a signal is ZndTrail Loc
received by the transceiver in the trail locomotive, then it
also has to be conditioned to control appropriate relays. Fig. 6. Air brake system modification in the remote IoCOmotive.
The possible combination is also checked in

980
The mechanic modification in the remote trail locomotive
can be shown in fig. 6.
The additional controllable valve is now regulating the
brake pipe air pressure electrically, using the air supply
coming from the MR3.
Using this way, the 5 bar air pressure can reach the very
back point of this train and the releasing mechanism can
be done faster.

IV. EXPER~MENTAL
RESULT

To validate the data processed by microcontroller and

data transmitted by transceivers in lead locomotive and
trail locomotive in laboratory, we simulate the throttling
speed signals by four toggle bits switch, while the result is
represented using 4 LEDs installed on the slave system,
indicating the combination.
With the same manner, the dynamic brake request analog
signal is converted to digital signal in lead locomotive and
reconverted to analog signal in slave locomotive. To
simulate the air braking process, a tube with regulated
pressure is measured by a 0 to IO bars pressure transducer
which is adequate with current value 4 to 20 d. The
result current is transformed to voltage and sent to slave
locomotive by same way like dynamic brake mechanism.
The additional controllable valve installed in the remote
trail locomotive works in the voltage range 0 to 5 Volts
which is proportional to the regulated brake pipe air
pressure 0 to 5 bars.
The result obtained from simulated operation remote
locomotive is quite promising and good.
For the throttling mechanism, we have tested the remote
system to the locomotive, and was able to run well.

REFERENCES
[I] Myke Predko, "Programming and Customizing the 8051
Microconuoller-.'~New York. McCrvw Hill, 1999.
I?] c c - 2 0 2 Locomotive wiring.
[;I G26MC-2 Operator's Manual.

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