Ted S posted:If the DC units were recent-production (in other words, not SD9's), I'm surprised they didn't have some kind of built-in protection that took the generator offline in the event of an overload.
Why would that surprise you? Neither EMD nor GE locomotives, "back in the day", such as SD40-2s and the like, are going to simply "shut down" in the middle of a long hard pull on a steep grade.
I've heard of the "short time rating." How hard would it be to incorporate a timer or a temperature sensor, which would allow the crew to use most or all of the short-time rating without catastrophic damage?
That would add more clap-trap stuff, which would need to maintained. Again, neither EMD nor GE designed their locomotives to "shut down" on a steep grade. For another example, when an EMD locomotive over-heated in a tunnel, the only thing that happens was; the "Hot Engine" alarm sounded, but the engine does NOT "shut Down".
