Back-up and redundancy of modules in locomotive distributed control systems

A method for controlling a locomotive, the method comprising:

• monitoring, by a processor in the locomotive, a first electronic module of a plurality of electronic modules spatially distributed within the locomotive, the plurality of electronic modules being communicatively coupled to a network in a standardized scalable architecture and being programmatically reconfigurable to implement distributed control of the locomotive, the first electronic module and a second electronic module of the plurality of electronic modules being communicatively connected to one of a plurality of control elements via separate communication paths, and the first electronic module being configured to control the control element;
• determining, by the processor, whether the first electronic module enters into a failure condition;
• and
• when the processor determines that the first electronic module enters into the failure condition, instructing, by the processor, the second electronic module to control the control element.

A consist, comprising:

• a plurality of locomotives, each locomotive comprising:
• a network disposed within the locomotive;
• a plurality of electronic modules spatially distributed within the locomotive, each of the electronic modules communicatively coupled to the network in a standardized scalable architecture and being programmatically reconfigurable to implement distributed control of the locomotive;
• and
• a plurality of control elements distributed within the locomotive,
• wherein a first electronic module and a second electronic module of the plurality of electronic modules are communicatively connected to one of the plurality of control elements via separate communication paths,
• the first electronic module is configured to control the control element, and
• the second electronic module is configured to control the control element when the first electronic module enters into a failure condition.