General Electric Company

Harmon Industries, Inc.

John Hayward Johnson

Lee A McConnel

A system and method for railroad cab signal quality detection and reporting for use in connection with a railroad cab signaling system in which a status signal is carried on a railroad rail. The status signal has a cab signal parameter that is indicative of a status of a zone of track. A signal detector detects the status signal transmitted via the railroad rail. A signal measurement subsystem associated with the signal detector measures the cab signal parameter. A quality analysis subsystem analyzes the measured cab signal parameter and determines a measure of quality of the cab signal parameter. The system may include equipment that is mounted on a rail vehicle, such as a locomotive, or mounted along a block of track, or on portable equipment. The system may also include a cab signal quality collection and reporting system. The method includes detecting the cab status signal and measuring the cab signal parameter from the detected status signal. The measure of quality of the measured cab signal parameter is determined and is reported.

Cab signal quality detecting and reporting system and method

Inductive pickups for sensing coded cab current information employ short ferrite cores and exhibit a pronounced roll-off characteristic to provide a detection system that may be used with locomotives powered by alternating current traction motors. Desired response is enhanced by connecting the inductors in phase in a tuned circuit and by employing a cancelling coil in phase opposition that receives interfering motor noise but is insensitive to the coded information.

Cab signal pickup system with motor noise reduction

A single phase motor is disclosed which comprises a stator assembly having a main winding, a start winding and an auxiliary winding wherein the start and auxiliary windings are connected in two alternative configurations during start and run conditions, respectively. During the start condition, the start and auxiliary windings are interconnected by a series connection which causes current to flow through the auxiliary winding in a reverse direction to the flow through the start winding so that there exists a bucking magnetic relationship between the fields in the start and auxiliary windings. During the run condition of the motor, however, the start and auxiliary windings are interconnected by a second series electrical connection which causes the current to flow through the auxiliary winding in a direction opposite the first direction so as to cause the magnetic fields in the start and auxiliary windings to be in an aiding relationship thereby improving motor operating efficiency. In one embodiment, the auxiliary winding is formed as a single coil for each of the poles of the motor, and these coils are disposed within respective slot pairs. In another embodiment, the auxiliary winding is distributed in all of the slots occupied by the start winding so as to obtain better start winding harmonics and lower end turn factor. End turn factor is a measure of the tightness at the end turns and is the ratio of the end turn conductor cross sectional area to the area available for the end turns.

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Blue Springs, MO, United States of America

John Hayward Johnson