Network infrastructure for locomotive distributed control system

A computer-implemented method for controlling a locomotive, the method comprising:

• monitoring, by a processor, communication among a plurality of electronic modules over a first network, the plurality of electronic modules being connected to both of the first network and a second network and being communicatively coupled to the first network by a network switch;
• determining, by the processor, whether the communication among the plurality of electronic modules over the first network is failed;
• and
• when the communication among the plurality of electronic modules is failed, instructing, by the processor, the network switch to communicatively couple the plurality of electronic modules to the second network.

A consist, comprising:

• a plurality of locomotives, each locomotive comprising:
• at least one network;
• a plurality of communication centers spatially disposed within the locomotive and coupled to the at least one network, each of the plurality of communication centers comprising a plurality of communication outlets;
• and
• a plurality of electronic modules spatially distributed within the locomotive in a standardized scalable architecture and connected to the at least one network via the plurality of communication outlets included in the plurality of communication centers, and each one of the plurality of electronic modules being reconfigurable to implement distributed control of the locomotive.