KickStart Battery and Starting Manager
Reliable Locomotive Starts with Smarter Battery Management
KickStart Battery and Starting Manager (BSM) is a smart energy management solution designed to eliminate battery-related failed restarts (DWS events), extend battery life, and ensure consistent starting performance across your locomotive fleet. It integrates advanced supercapacitor technology with intelligent battery management, actively monitoring and optimizing system health to keep your locomotives ready, even in extreme conditions.
Ideal for high-horsepower and long-haul locomotives, KickStart BSM delivers the power and reliability needed to minimize downtime, reduce maintenance, and enhance AESS integration for greater fuel and emissions savings.
Why KickStart Battery and Starting Manager?
KickStart BSM in addition to locomotive starting assist, actively manages and protects locomotive batteries to extend battery life, reduce failures, and improve fleet performance.
KickStart BSM is engineered for larger, more demanding locomotives. The integrated supercapacitor delivers powerful cranking assistance, ensuring reliable engine starts even when batteries are depleted or under heavy loads.
KickStart BSM’s battery management system extends the life of lead-acid batteries by managing charging cycles and reducing deep discharges. Rail operators can expect up to 3x the battery life, significantly lowering the cost of replacements and maintenance.
Battery-related failures are a leading cause of downtime. KickStart BSM addresses this with features like Bus Boost™ and One More Crank™, which ensure your locomotive starts reliably, even under low battery conditions. These features allow operators to avoid costly delays and improve fleet availability
By optimizing the locomotive's starting system and integrating with Automatic Engine Stop-Start (AESS) systems, KickStart BSM reduces idling times and fuel consumption. Rail operators experience fuel savings while also cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions, supporting sustainability goals.
Key Performance Improvements
Eliminates battery-related failed restarts for maximum reliability.
Less time spent idling for battery charging, reducing fuel consumption.
Faster, more efficient starts that minimize stress on components.
Maintains battery charge, reducing unnecessary start cycles.
Reduces deep cycling, extending battery life and improving performance.
Optimized charging and discharging for extended longevity.
Maximized cost savings through reduced fuel usage, extended battery life, and maintenance savings.
Benefits & Features
KickStart BSM is a smart energy management system that not only ensures reliable locomotive starts but also actively monitors, protects, and optimizes battery performance, reducing failures and extending battery lifespan.
KickStart BSM integrates a high-capacity supercapacitor system that stores and releases energy during the cranking process. This additional power boost ensures that even high-horsepower locomotives, which demand more energy to start, can reliably crank up even when batteries are heavily depleted. The supercapacitor’s fast discharge properties mean the locomotive starts quickly and smoothly, while reducing the strain on the lead-acid battery. The result is a significant reduction in dead-won’t-start (DWS) events, keeping your fleet operational even in challenging conditions like extreme cold or heavy load demands.
One of the most critical challenges during a locomotive start is the temporary voltage drop that can affect sensitive electronics. KickStart BSM’s Bus Boost™ feature stabilizes the voltage during cranking, ensuring that onboard electronics and essential systems continue to operate smoothly. This prevents power cycling and resets in critical systems, which can otherwise cause disruptions in the locomotive’s operation. With Bus Boost™, you can count on reliable voltage regulation, reducing the risk of electronic failures during start-up and extending the life of your electronics.
The integrated Battery Management System (BMS) continuously monitors battery health, charge cycles, and voltage levels. This real-time data allows the system to optimize the charging and discharging of the batteries, preventing deep discharges and extending the overall life of your lead-acid batteries. With the BMS actively managing the health of the battery, you can expect up to 3x longer battery life. The system ensures that batteries are always operating within optimal parameters, reducing maintenance costs and preventing unexpected battery failures.
KickStart BSM’s One More Crank™ feature ensures that, even when the battery is nearly depleted, there is enough power available for one additional cranking cycle. This emergency feature disconnects non-essential parasitic loads, redirecting all available battery power to ensure the locomotive can start. By doing so, One More Crank™ prevents stranded locomotives and costly delays. This feature is particularly beneficial for long-haul operations, where locomotives may need to restart after long shutdown periods or under low-battery conditions.
KickStart BSM works seamlessly with Automatic Engine Stop-Start (AESS) systems to minimize the need for unnecessary idling. By ensuring that batteries are kept in optimal health and preventing failed starts, KickStart BSM reduces the time locomotives need to idle to maintain battery charge. This reduction in idle time leads to substantial fuel savings and lower greenhouse gas emissions, supporting both operational efficiency and sustainability goals. Rail operators can reduce fuel consumption by thousands of gallons per year, making KickStart BSM a critical tool for cutting costs and minimizing environmental impact.
How KickStart BSM Works?
KickStart Battery and Starting Manager (BSM) is a three-module system that integrates with the locomotive’s electrical system to ensure reliable starts, optimize battery performance, and enhance energy management. By intelligently managing power distribution and preventing voltage fluctuations, it ensures consistent locomotive starts and long-term battery health.
Control Module – Intelligent Battery Management
The Control Module acts as the brain of the system, continuously monitoring and managing battery health, voltage levels, and charge cycles. It ensures the proper sequencing of events during cranking, monitoring battery status, and controlling features like Bus Boost™ and One More Crank™. It performs several critical functions:
Tracks real-time voltage, temperature, and charge status, identifying signs of degradation before they become failures.
Ensures optimal power delivery by adjusting charge cycles and reducing unnecessary drain.
Automatically disconnects non-essential loads when the engine is off to conserve battery power.
Works with Automatic Engine Stop-Start (AESS) systems to optimize shutdown times while ensuring batteries remain ready for the next start.
Capacitor Module – Supercapacitor-Assisted Cranking
Stores energy during normal operation and instantly releases it during cranking, ensuring a strong, stable power supply for engine ignition.
Prevents brownouts or dips that could affect onboard electronics.
Minimizes deep discharge cycles, extending battery lifespan by up to 3X.
Power Manager Module – Voltage Regulation & Load Balancing
The Power Manager Module optimizes power distribution across the locomotive, ensuring stable voltage levels and efficient energy utilization.
Maintains consistent voltage across the system, preventing power fluctuations that can cause electronic resets.
Balances energy delivery to ensure all batteries receive uniform charging.
KickStart BSM - Remote Monitoring & Diagnostics
KickStart BSM seamlessly integrates with Vision, ZTR’s advanced IoT and fleet management platform, providing rail operators with real-time battery intelligence and analytics to enhance locomotive performance. By combining KickStart BSM with Vision, operators gain complete visibility into battery health, start performance, and system efficiency, allowing for proactive maintenance and optimized fleet operation.
Key Benefits of Connecting KickStart BSM to Vision:
Centralizes battery health data with other locomotive monitoring systems for a comprehensive fleet management strategy.
Continuously track charge levels, cranking performance, and voltage stability to prevent failures.
Identify early signs of battery wear and schedule proactive maintenance before failures occur.
Analyze trends in crank time, voltage dips, and AESS restarts to improve operational efficiency.
Receive real-time notifications for low voltage, failed starts, and critical battery conditions.
With KickStart BSM and Vision, rail operators move from reactive troubleshooting to predictive decision-making, reducing unplanned downtime and maximizing locomotive availability.
KickStart BSM Delivers Reliable Cranking Voltage Stability for a Class 1 Customer
The KickStart Battery and Starting Manager (BSM) proved highly effective in stabilizing bus voltage during locomotive cranking events for a leading Class 1 railroad.
Knowledge Hub
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Get Started with KickStart BSM
Ensure your locomotives start reliably, every time. Contact us today to learn how KickStart BSM can improve your fleet’s performance and reduce operational costs.
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