ZTR Control Systems
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| Privately Held Company | |
| Founded | London, Ontario, Canada (1987) |
| Headquarters | Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States |
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Number of locations
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3 |
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Area served
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Worldwide |
| Products |
Locomotive Modernization Experts Locomotive AESS Idle Reduction Systems Locomotive Control Systems We Make Complex Telematics Simple Remote Equipment Monitoring Systems Remote Asset Management Services for OEM, Rental, Oil & Gas, Construction, Power Generation, and more |
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Number of employees
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160 (2015) |
| Website | www.ztr.com |
ZTR Control Systems is a privately held company based in London, Ontario, Canada and with an office in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. ZTR has been providing monitoring and control systems for the railway and industrial off-road compact construction equipment markets for twenty-five years.
ZTR Control Systems is a privately held company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, with a second location in London, Ontario, Canada. ZTR has been providing monitoring and control systems for the railway and industrial off-road compact construction equipment markets for twenty-five years.
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 exactly 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 successfully 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 Ziegler was impressed with Gen II results. 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®. SmartStart® monitored for conditions during shutdown that allowed the locomotive to restart to get them back into specification – essentially a smart thinking system. With increased scrutiny, regulations,environmental concerns, and the desire of to both prevent waste and save money, a system like SmartStart® drew a lot of attention.
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Wikipedia