KickStart Starting Assist
Advanced Starting Assist Solution with Supercapacitor Technology
Locomotive starting reliability is often compromised by battery degradation, voltage dropouts, and cold-weather performance challenges. These issues lead to failed engine restarts, prolonged idle times for battery charging, and increased wear on electrical systems—all contributing to higher operational costs and reduced fleet availability.
KickStart Starting Assist from ZTR addresses this critical failure point by integrating supercapacitor-based energy storage into the starting circuit. During engine cranking, KickStart supplements the locomotive’s batteries with a high-power discharge, stabilizing system voltage and ensuring reliable starter engagement—even when battery state-of-charge is low.
Engineered for seamless integration and extreme environments, KickStart delivers a high-reliability, zero-maintenance solution that supports improved fuel efficiency, reduced emissions, and optimal locomotive uptime.
Why KickStart Starting Assist?
KickStart Starting Assist is engineered to eliminate battery-related start failures, reduce downtime, and extend battery life, ensuring your locomotives remain operational in even the most demanding conditions.
By supplying instant high-current energy during engine cranking, KickStart eliminates the voltage sags that lead to brownouts and failed starts. This ensures that even when batteries are partially discharged or degraded, locomotives can reliably restart without manual intervention.
By reducing the battery’s exposure to deep discharges and high current loads during cranking, KickStart minimizes one of the primary causes of battery degradation. This decreases the frequency of replacements and reduces maintenance requirements, resulting in longer battery service intervals and lower total ownership cost.
Battery capacity drops significantly in cold temperatures, increasing the risk of start failures. KickStart maintains performance regardless of ambient temperature and has demonstrated over 90% success rate in sub-zero starts.
With a sealed, solid-state architecture, KickStart requires no ongoing servicing, calibration, or part replacement. There are no consumables or moving parts, which eliminates recurring maintenance tasks and reduces the burden on mechanical teams managing large fleets.
KickStart is designed for quick installation and compatibility with Automatic Engine Stop-Start (AESS) systems and onboard control architectures. It uses standard electrical interfaces and doesn’t require control system modifications, allowing for efficient fleet-wide deployment with minimal disruption.
By improving the reliability of restarts after shutdown, KickStart enhances the effectiveness of AESS systems, allowing locomotives to shut down more often without the risk of failed cranks. This leads to reduced unnecessary idling, lower fuel consumption, decreased emissions, and less engine wear over time.
Key Performance Improvements
Validated through field data and customer implementations, KickStart Starting Assist delivers measurable improvements in start performance, fuel efficiency, and battery longevity. Each gain contributes directly to lower operating costs and improved locomotive uptime.
By ensuring reliable restarts, KickStart allows locomotives to shut down more frequently, reducing the need for prolonged idling to maintain battery charge.
KickStart delivers immediate high-power support during startup, helping engines turn over faster and reducing mechanical and electrical stress.
With improved voltage stability and reliable starts, locomotives avoid unnecessary restart attempts triggered by failed cranks or false battery warnings.
Supercapacitor-assisted energy delivery reduces the peak current load placed on batteries, improving electrical efficiency and protecting onboard systems.
By preventing deep discharges and minimizing high-current demand during starts, battery degradation slows significantly—leading to fewer replacements.
KickStart Starting Assist maintains voltage levels even when battery performance is compromised by cold temperatures, enabling consistent starts in extreme environments.
Reduced fuel consumption, fewer battery replacements, and less maintenance downtime drive strong long-term financial returns per unit installed.
Key Features
Designed to enhance locomotive reliability, KickStart SA leverages supercapacitor technology to deliver high-power cranking assistance, protect onboard systems, and extend battery life—ensuring seamless operation in all conditions.
AESS Compatibility for Fuel Savings
KickStart Starting Assist seamlessly integrates with Automatic Engine Stop-Start (AESS) systems, ensuring locomotives can reliably restart after idle shutdowns. By providing additional cranking power, it reduces strain on batteries, allowing AESS to function more effectively and deliver greater fuel savings, lower emissions, and extended engine life. When used alongside SmartStart, ZTR’s advanced AESS solution, operators gain a fully optimized idle reduction strategy, combining intelligent engine management with reliable starting assist for maximum efficiency and cost savings.
KickStart utilizes industrial-grade supercapacitors to store and deliver high-current energy directly to the starter motor during cranking. These capacitors discharge almost instantly and recharge very quickly using locomotive auxiliary power—without relying on battery charge level.
- Delivers immediate cranking support when battery voltage is low, recharges rapidly between starts, and ensures consistent readiness without adding load to the battery system.
KickStart is engineered to work with a broad range of locomotive configurations, including Automatic Engine Stop-Start (AESS) systems, without requiring system redesign or programming changes. It connects via standard terminals and supports common control protocols.
- Reduces installation time, avoids compatibility issues, and ensures quick deployment across legacy and modern fleets alike.
During engine start, KickStart supplements the battery and prevents voltage dips that can fall below the dropout thresholds of onboard electronics. By maintaining system voltage above critical levels, it prevents ECU resets and failed crank attempts caused by brownouts.
- Protects sensitive control systems, prevents crank-cycle interruptions, and increases the likelihood of successful starts under all conditions.
KickStart’s enclosure is shock- and vibration-resistant, with internal components rated for extreme operating environments. Its small footprint allows mounting in battery compartments or tight spaces on the locomotive.
- Maximizes deployment flexibility across locomotive classes and ensures long-term durability in rail-specific conditions.
KickStart SA is available in multiple configurations and can be adapted to the cranking power demands of different engine types, including both low and high-horsepower platforms.
- Enables fleet-wide standardization of starting assist technology, simplifies spare parts management, and supports expansion to additional locomotive models over time.
An internal monitoring system continuously tracks capacitor voltage, internal temperatures, and overall health. In the event of anomalies or degradation, the system flags issues via onboard indicators or remote monitoring tools.
- Enables proactive fault detection and reduces the risk of surprise failures during operation, supporting more predictive maintenance planning.
With no moving parts, consumables, or fluid systems, KickStart is a sealed, solid-state unit that operates autonomously. The system requires no routine service throughout its life expectancy.
- Eliminates maintenance overhead, reduces total cost of ownership, and ensures long-term operational consistency without intervention.
How KickStart Starting Assist Works
Batteries are one of the leading causes for engine starting problems. Brownouts are caused when high current draw on a weakened battery causes the battery voltage during engine cranking to drop below the minimum voltage requirement needed to maintain the onboard electrics. Once the voltage drops below the dropout voltage, the onboard electronics will cycle and the cranking will cease causing a dead-won’t-start.
KickStart Starting Assist, supercapacitor-based system, is designed to support locomotive batteries by delivering rapid bursts of power during engine cranking. This ensures reliable starts while reducing strain on the battery system.
Supercapacitors charge using the locomotive’s power system when idle.
During engine start, KickStart SA releases stored energy, supplementing the batteries.
The system stabilizes voltage levels, preventing dips that could impact onboard electronics.
After each start, KickStart SA automatically recharges for the next cycle.
With the implementation of supercapacitor starting assist technology, there is a high power output from the supercapacitor for the engine cranking to cut the current draw on the battery and avoid a voltage drop to the onboard electrics. Even with a weakened battery, the locomotive control system voltage is maintained above the minimum voltage to avoid a brown out and results in a successful restart. The supercapacitor is then recharged in minutes after the locomotive starts.
Download KickStart Starting Assist Whitepaper
For a detailed analysis of KickStart’s benefits and real-world results, download our comprehensive KickStart Whitepaper – Improving Locomotive Starting Performance. The whitepaper includes field data and case studies showing how KickStart improves fleet performance, reduces maintenance costs, and enhances fuel efficiency.
KickStart Starting Assist - Remote Monitoring and Diagnostics
KickStart SA seamlessly integrates with Vision, ZTR’s advanced remote monitoring and fleet management platform, providing rail operators with real-time insights into locomotive performance, battery health, and operational efficiency. By connecting KickStart SA to Vision, you gain a complete data-driven view of your fleet, helping you make informed decisions that reduce downtime, improve reliability, and optimize maintenance planning.
Key Benefits of KickStart SA Data in Vision
Track every engine start event—including crank duration, voltage stability, and success rate—across your fleet to identify anomalies before they become failures.
Monitor battery charge levels, strain patterns, and discharge depth to understand how batteries are performing over time—and when they’re likely to fail.
Leverage historical cranking and voltage data to detect battery degradation, enabling proactive service scheduling.
Get real-time notifications when a start attempt exceeds normal parameters or fails to complete—reducing downtime through faster incident response.
View trends in start reliability, idle reduction, and voltage performance across locomotives, enabling data-driven optimization of both maintenance and fuel strategies.
Vision aggregates KickStart data with other onboard systems, giving operators and fleet managers a single pane of glass for health, performance, and diagnostics.
Applications
KickStart has been successfully implemented on locomotives worldwide, providing measurable improvements in start reliability, battery life, and fuel savings. After installing KickStart on a fleet of SD40-2 locomotives, a prominent freight operator saw a 50% reduction in idle time caused by battery charging requirements. KickStart allowed locomotives to stay shut down for an additional 18 hours per month, reducing fuel consumption by over 1,080 gallons per locomotive annually. This resulted in fuel cost savings of approximately $4,320 per locomotive per year, along with lower emissions
In another case study a railway operator equipped its fleet with KickStart to reduce battery strain during starts. The supercapacitor technology reduced deep battery discharges, doubling the expected battery life from 2 years to 4-5 years. This extension in battery life saved the operator up to $12,000 in battery replacement costs per locomotive over five years, significantly reducing overall maintenance expenses.
Knowledge Hub
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Ensure your locomotives start reliably, every time. Contact us today to learn how KickStart SA can improve your fleet’s performance and reduce maintenance costs.
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