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In posting to a recent thread on helpers, this question came to mind that has been nagging me for some time. In all of the photos and video I've shot at Horseshoe Curve, I've noticed a lot of the SD40-2 pushers (I haven't seen it on any other loco type) had a small label centered below the number on the side of the cab that reads "Select-A-Power". Anyone know what this signifies? Someone in the other thread mentioned a "Helper Link" system, but I followed the link to the explanation of the system and saw the picture of the hardware, and I've never seen anything similar attached to the CR units. I haven't noticed if the NS-repainted units retain the label or not. Mr. F
"There's no 'I' in 'Team'.....there's no 'U' either....."
As I've heard, it is a system installed on most Conrail locomotives that enables the engineer to "kill" or shut down a locomotive in the consist from his seat in the lead unit. I'm not sure what the advantage is with this system, I guess to save on fuel.
----------------------------- Kyle Norek, Milepost 76 on the NS Buffalo Line MSN Messenger: crsd40@hotmail.com
If that's what it is, I could see the advantage of shutting down one engine in the lashup from the engineer's seat (maybe restarting it too?). Otherwise, (correct me if I'm wrong) a crew member would have to walk back in the engine compartment to do it, or if it was a trailing unit, back along the outside of the engine, maybe in inclement weather, to do the same to the offending unit. I'll have to look back at some of my tapes to confirm, but if memory serves me right I've only seen it on the pushers, primarily the SD40-2s but I think the SD45-2s had it too.Mr. F
"There's no 'I' in 'Team'.....there's no 'U' either....."
Eureka.....an excerpt taken from an Aug. 27, 2002 column on Railroad.net, "Today We Save A Little Gas":"Select-A-Power worked relatively easy. Each equipped locomotive had a box mounted above the air brake rack and radio. Indicator lights on the control panel showed you how many working units in the locomotive consist were active and equipped with the feature. When you reached a situation in which you didn't require all the horsepower from the trailing units in the locomotive consist, you pushed a button on the Select-A-Power control panel to reduce working units in the consist. A light would illuminate for a moment telling you the unit was actively engaged in making the change. The rear most trailing unit would then drop back to idle and the light representing that unit would extinguish on the control panel. If you wanted to reduce more power, depressing the button again would drop the next trailing unit to idle. As you needed to add power for grades and maintaining track speed, you depressed the button on the control panel to add a unit or units to power. You could add and subtract units literally at the push of a button. Conrail was very satisfied with Select-A-Power as most of their power was equipped. Only smaller units like older Geeps used primarily in yard service and Switchers were not equipped."Looks like you were right, CR. That explains a few things I've seen at Horseshoe too; I remember one occasion when I saw a TOFC train that had stalled further downgrade and called for a helper come past the Curve with a two-unit helper, but only one unit appeared to be working. I wonder now if he used the system to take out the second unit, maybe to keep from applying too much power and buckling the lightweight cars. Mr. F
"There's no 'I' in 'Team'.....there's no 'U' either....."
RE: Conrail SD40-2 pushers: what is "Select-A-Power"?
Hi Guys,I did a search on it mainly because I was interested in seeing what it was. I had read about it before and had a short memory of it, I think this explains it very well. This is taken off Conrail Cyclopedia and from the C30-7 section."All Conrail C30-7A's are also equipped with Harmon Select-A-Power, which is noted in a decal on the cab either above or below the 'C30-7A' locomotive class. Harmon Select-A-Power is an add-on fuel-saving electronic device. When a train doesn't need all its units to be online, this device allows an engineer to take trailing units off line one by one until only the lead unit is active. Units can also be reactivated as needed. When a unit is offline, it produces power of throttle position #1."Hope that helps,Chris Lee Train Artisan
