> Many museums have welders and other trades competent to keep old equipment running.
> But few museums have members who would be competent to design a new control system for the Boeing cars.

I’d take issue with the above statements for a couple of reasons. I’d say here in NJ that coming up with volunteers with trade (welders, machinists, etc) experience is becoming more and more difficult. Yet, the number of people with software experience is probably exploding. Key then is to go out and find those guys who may want to help. Locally we have at least one retro computer club which is part of the larger InfoAge museum. My hunch is that some of these guys may jump at the chance to dig into some real world retro computer systems. Plenty of retirees locally who are programmers of one language or another. I suspect this is somewhat true across the country. The talent is out there, just need to be a bit more creative to reach out and find it.

She has a bad (leaky) turbocharger, which leaked so much oil it soaked - and shorted - a traction motor. She's also lacking in alignment control couplers, although they're supposed to be an easy drop-in and available on-site.

CD

Something else to keep in mind is that the circuit boards that went into electronic control systems were checked at the factory with special test equipment. It often generated specific digital signals for testing. That specialized test equipment no longer exists for obsolete circuit boards.

A competent electronic technician probably could trouble shoot a defective circuit board down to the component level but without the special test equipment it could be extremely difficult if not impossible.

The design frequently was the result of many days of experimenting and testing. A person designing a replacement control system would be unlikely to have that much time available.

Many if not most programmers know very little about the electronics used in computers. They would not be competent to trouble shoot hardware problems. How many programmers do you know who even own a volt meter for testing?

Systems of that era did not use software as a critical point of failure for safety related functions such as braking and power interlocking. There wasn't that much faith in it.

Even then, there are several approaches to software and the Toyota approach is wrong. You don't want some powerful CPU running every function on the car. That soon leads to "a million lines of spaghetti code" software. For small implementations like ours, the better thing is several very simple computers which do very simple things with 100 lines of code at most.

In any case, once such a system is complete, you freeze software and in fact freeze it all in epoxy. You make 30 of them and if one is suspect, you just swap it.

The #1 design issue IMO is hardening the module electrically so it is not damaged by "bad inputs" like wrong polarity, stray 600v, back EMF from actuators etc. Otherwise you'll burn through those 30 spares at breakneck speed.

If you do a good job cultivating the younger generation and not putting up barriers to them doing productive work, you'd be amazed what they can do. As a general rule, the younger generation has no use for organizational politics, wants to get their hands dirty, and do not want to be told that the only job for them is sweeping the floor. "And be grateful you are allowed to do THAT" - says the museum that will not attract the new generation of volunteers.

The zero interest rate environment (ZIRP) adopted as an "emergency" measure to "stimulate" the economy in the 2008 financial crisis, and now a near necessity in order to allow the government to carry its accumulated debts without defaulting, is likely to starve many charitable institutions even sooner than changing demographics cause them to run out of volunteers. Retirees no longer have a secure, predictable income from their investments, many are liquidating their principal to support their retirement. This is contributing to a reduction in charitable giving that is affecting many organizations. Lacking any substantial improvement in the economy, the situation is not likely to get better any time soon.

PC

Head up, Moderators: Seems like this discussion of preserving vintage diesels has taken an off-topic direction.

As an auto enthusiast with a "modern classic" car, there are options. In my case, I have an 85 Thunderbird Turbo Coupe, with it's EEC-IV computer system still intact. There are some modern "plug and play" computers made for this early 80's too the early 90's ford application. They also will "adapt" to engine conditions, and fine tune themselves for proper operation, and they are fully compatible the latest version of windows, you simply plug your lap top in and away you go if you need to make any changes. The parameters in these ECU's can be modified in any way desirable. They can be modified in the case of turbocharged cars to take inputs in from a modern and very accurate "wide band" type O2 sensors as well. Also they have different sets of "parameters" that can be programmed in, say for "track" and "road", or "high octane" and "low octane" that can be toggled with a switch. It is also capable of simply being as a "new drop in ready" ECU for a stock car. But many "performance" car owners like it for it's ability to programed, even as you drive down the street with it..

Granted there's a lot of older Fords running around and the computer itself is quite small and "relatively" inexpensive, compared to EMD's in the future.

But this is just an example, who knows what we will see technology wise in 50 years to keep the older "computerized" units running... The updated technology and software to keep the older units running may come from the railroads themselves. It may be nothing more than specially made sets of cables, and adapters, to connect the wiring in a locomotives computer cabinets, to a laptop, or tablet, it may be just that simple.

I have a $20 adapter that connects a car's OBD II port, to my smartphone, and with a $5 app, I can monitor ALL the inputs coming into the car's ECU on my phone, in real time...I can even check, and clear fault codes, and log data to be uploaded to a spreadsheet later, completely wirelessly using bluetooth, and I can even take a call while it is doing it, while the smartphone is sending music to the vehicle's stereo. This technology works the same, on my 1996 Ford Explorer too an 2014 Dodge, and everything inbetween.And if you told me 10 years ago, I would be able to do all that, and much more, with a relatively inexpensive device that I carry in my T-shirt's pocket, that can even tell me what the weather is going to be, in Hong Kong, AND take "decent" photos and movies, I would have called you crazy.

Modern EEC-IV Ford ECU replacement:
http://stinger-performance.proboards.co ... standalone

Is this loco still available for sale and where can it be seen?
Mike