Substantiation of the Way of Modernization of Shunting Diesel Locomotives

The analysis of the reconstruction process of traction means on the world railways shows that the railway polygon operated by diesel locomotive traction and the transport volume carried out by diesel locomotives on the railways occupy the leading place. Despite the fact that in the countries of Western Europe and the USA the process of introducing advanced types of traction has been completed or is almost completed, demand for diesel locomotives will remain stable worldwide. Moreover, these countries will require the replacement and modernization of outdated diesel locomotives. All this is driving the leading global diesel locomotive companies such as Brush Traction, Alstom, Toshiba, General Electric to work intensively on the creation of new diesel locomotive constructions. The global trend towards energy efficiency makes it necessary to move to more environmentally friendly and reliable shunting diesel locomotives. Given the fact that shunting diesel locomotives are often used as suburban railway locomotives in short, inactive sections, the issue of reducing fuel and energy consumption is currently an acute and priority task. They are also one of the most important elements of railway stations ensuring their uninterrupted operation, therefore the creation of hybrid units for shunting traction with advanced control systems is one of the actual scientific and technical tasks of the railway transport. The article addresses the problems of inefficient use of fuel and energy resources by shunting locomotives. The proposed functional scheme of the hybrid diesel locomotive makes it possible to introduce traction engine control systems to improve their properties..