THE SANTA FE RAILWAY LOCOMOTIVE SIMULATOR AND CO-ORDINATED ENGINEER'S TRAINING PROGRAMME

The majority of American railroads today are facing a critical shortage in the supply of locomotive engineers. The elimination of the fireman's station from the cab of modern locomotives has deeply eroded the source from which railway companies drew potential engineers. A variety of on-the-job training programmes has been initiated among several railways in an effort to accelerate training processes and to reduce the period of indenture which for so many years represented a costly and time-consuming prerequisite to this vocation; but none have been so revolutionary as the training technique introduced with the advent of locomotive and train simulators. The Santa Fe Railway recently placed in service its first complete simulator, a mobile unit which, in support of an extensive training programme has produced exceptionally well-qualified engineers. The essential details of design and construction of the simulator and the more complex functions of the visual, motion and sound systems are presented in this paper. The effectiveness of the related simulator training exercises, and the classroom instructions are reviewed. Significant applications of train dynamics analyses revealed through computer interpolation of environmental conditions are discussed.

• Corporate Authors:

  American Society of Mechanical Engineers

  Two Park Avenue
  New York, NY  United States  10016-5990
• Authors:
  • Ambrose, W G
• Publication Date: 1971-4

Media Info

• Pagination: 9 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Continuing education; Education; Locomotive engineers; Railroad simulators; Simulation; Training; Training devices; Training programs; Training simulators
• Identifier Terms: Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company
• Uncontrolled Terms: On the job training
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Education and Training; Railroads; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00046406
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: British Railways
• Report/Paper Numbers: 71-RR-3 Paper
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Sep 18 1976 12:00AM