How CP's locomotive experts monitor the health of our most expensive rolling assets.

You feel your car lose power. You coast to a stop at the side of the road, on a busy highway or a remote country road. You know what's coming, an expensive tow, a painful repair bill. Plus, hours spent in the lobby of the nearest mechanic shop.

Sure, it's painful. But consider the railroad equivalent. The failure occurs not in a $12,000 vehicle, but in a $2 million locomotive. More than 10,000 tonnes of revenue freight comes to a halt. Even worse, because there's no shoulder to pull onto, the main line's blocked. One delayed train becomes two, then three. Train crews approach their allotted hours of service.

This is a situation CP works hard to avoid. So we run regular diagnostic analyses of every locomotive's oil. You might be surprised by how much we learn.

"Doing oil analysis is similar to taking a blood test," says Rick Swacha, a Calgary based locomotive maintenance specialist for CP.

IT WORKS LIKE THIS

Every two weeks, personnel in CP's mechanical department draw a locomotive oil sample roughly the size of a small can of Red Bull. Then they courier the sample to Montreal where it is analyzed by a company called Predictive Maintenance.

Predictive Maintenance scrutinizes the oil by burning it and identifying the colours contained in the flame, a process known as spectrographic analysis. This process reveals a great deal about the engine from which the sample was drawn.

"According to our spec parameters, we can spot unusual wear on different metals within the engine. For example, iron, copper, lead, etc." says Swacha. "High lead can lead us towards looking at main bearings, con rods, and stub shaft bearings." Borate or fuel contamination also tells a story. For example:  "A locomotive could be losing cooling water and needs topping up every few days. You may have an internal water leak. Analyzing oil samples with contamination traces of boron, sodium, or water would confirm that suspicion, steering us towards an engine check."

CP gets the results back in about 24 hours. "If it's getting to a critical stage, there's more urgency to get the locomotive into a facility to look it over," Swacha says.

The value of the tests is compelling. "A catastrophic engine failure can be anywhere from $200,000 and up," notes Swacha. "One saved engine pays for a lot of sampling when you're looking at less than $20 a sample."