ZTR Control Systems

ZTR Control Systems was initially established under the name TRAC Rail on October 28, 1987. Five former GM Diesel employees came up with an idea for a control and monitoring system to make locomotives run more cleanly and efficiently. [2] TRAC stands for Trip Recording and Control, which was what the company's systems were originally intended to do.

The first test of a microprocessor-based retrofit control system was done on a Santa Fe SD40-2 in April 1988. During this test, the fundamental concepts of the controller were successfully proven. This led to the first installation, also with the Santa Fe Railroad, on a newly rebuilt SD40-2 in December 1988. After three months, the unit was released for full revenue service including a high priority intercontinental mail service with highly variable weather conditions. On one route the locomotive went from subzero blizzard conditions in the Rocky Mountains, to 50 degrees Celsius in an Arizona desert within a 24-hour period.

1989 marks the birth of the NEXSYS Control System. ZTR began a test by installing a NEXSYS Control System on Santa Fe Unit #5032. This test resulted in the development of a tool called IDEAS (Integrated Diagnostic and Expert Analysis System) which allows users to troubleshoot and diagnose the failures on-site. It was an advanced concept for the time because the reports were in simple English, enabling anyone to diagnose and troubleshoot problems.

Despite this innovative approach, ZTR had difficulty breaking into the retrofit market. They had to find someone with a retrofit contract in place and sell them on the system. Ziegler, Inc., the Midwest Caterpillar dealer who established Generation II Locomotives (Gen II), focused on rebuilding locomotives with Caterpillar engines. Ziegler heard about the Santa Fe testing and approached ZTR to test the microprocessor controls on rebuilds for Burlington Northern Railroad.

The first test took place in the northern regions of Minnesota, and Gen II moved forward with a ZTR control system on the next 10 locomotives built for CP's SOO Line.

During the installation of these control systems, ZTR introduced an automatic shutdown and restart system called SmartStart.[1] SmartStart monitored for conditions during shutdown that allowed the locomotive to restart to get them back into specification.

ZTR control systems were installed on different locomotives belonging to Burlington Northern, CP Rail-Soo Line, Wisconsin Central, Gateway Western, and Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway. A major selling point is fuel savings. The microprocessor-based locomotive control systems had an open architecture that could go far beyond just an automatic shutdown and restart capability. ZTR expanded SmartStart to include event recording, fan cycling and control, duty-cycle logging, kilowatt-hour recording and high-idle control. Additional features, added over time, include dynamic tag identification, cellular communications, maintenance flagging, health monitoring, and locomotive diagnostics.

1992 brought more change for ZTR: Ziegler, a Midwest Caterpillar dealer, utilized the expertise of ZTR Control Systems again, but this time in the remote monitoring and control of standby engine generators. In developing this system, ZTR created user-friendly graphic interface software, to replace hardware-based dials, meters, gauges, and buttons. Through the 1990s ZTR continued to expand its product and service offering.

In 1995 ZTR applied the first BOA (Bolt-on Adhesion) locomotive anti-wheel slip system to a CP GP9. This control product was used to improve the pulling power of a locomotive by detecting and correcting any slippage the metal wheels may have on the metal rails.

Drawing on its strengths in control systems, ZTR developed a product that focused directly on landfill gas recovery operations. In 1994, the monitoring and control of unmanned methane power generation sites was added to the ZTR Control Systems product and services. The systems are installed to monitor and control generating facilities located at landfill sites where methane gas served as the fuel for engine turning generators to generate electricity. The systems originally used a graphical user interface to display information being monitored at the site and alerted service personnel via pager, when any alarm conditions exited. With over a dozen installations across North America, these facilities provided a valuable source of green-friendly electricity to the communities in which they were located. These dangerous facilities could then be safely automated with minimal human intervention.[2]

The first large contract for the BOA system was TranzRail in New Zealand in 1997.

By 2001 ZTR was organized into two divisions – Rail and Connected Asset.

In 2002, Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway (BNSF) attempted to lower their fuel consumption and reduce noise and air pollution by adding advanced technology to their locomotives. The technology involved an innovative combination of a Diesel-Driven Heating System (DDHS), which keeps engines block temperature above 100 degrees F and the batteries charged, and a ZTR SmartStart. BNSF claimed it could save up to 12 million gallons of fuel per year just by shutting down idling locomotives when the temperature dropped below 40 degrees F, and was looking to cut fuel consumption that year by 3% (about 38 million gallons). BNSF later planned to equip more locomotives with the DDHS/SmartStart® combination, which they described as "one useful arrow in the quiver that we use to improve fuel efficiency and reduce emissions."[3]