MAINTAINABILITY ANALYSIS OF DIESEL-ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVES

This paper deals with the effectiveness of preventive maintenance of diesel electric locomotives. The effectiveness can be considered in several different contexts. It can be considered qualitatively, as a reduction in the frequency and severity of locomotive component failures, or as a statistically significant change in the probability of failure-free operation over a given number of locomotive-miles (i.e. reliability). As the implementation of various preventive maintenance techniques and procedures ultimately requires an additional expenditure of capital, the benefits incurred by an improvement in reliability, such as a decrease in maintenance expenditures required to achieve a given level of operational reliability, or a decrease in required locomotive-fleet inventories proportional to lower accumulated fleet down time, must ultimately be quantified as a monetary benefit, and weighed against the associated cost penalty. Each of these approaches is explored in this analysis. The methodology is applied to cost-effectiveness of testing of diesel-electric locomotives for predictive and preventive maintenance of electrical subsystems using SEARCH (System Evaluation and Reliability Checker). It is shown that the application of SEARCH could result in cost-savings as well as improved performance of locomotives.

• Corporate Authors:

  Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)

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  New York, NY  United States  10016-5997
• Authors:
  • Rawat, S K
• Publication Date: 0

Media Info

• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: 9 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Analysis; Benefit cost analysis; Detectors; Diagnostic tests; Diesel engines; Diesel locomotives; Locomotives; Maintainability; Maintenance management; Maintenance practices; Planning; Preventive maintenance; Reliability; Supply; Vehicle maintenance
• Uncontrolled Terms: Availability; Diagnostics
• Old TRIS Terms: Analytical techniques; Diesel engine diagnostics; Locomotive maintenance; Search system
• Subject Areas: Maintenance and Preservation; Planning and Forecasting; Railroads;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00152421
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
• Report/Paper Numbers: Res. Rpt.
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: May 11 1977 12:00AM