Patent ID: 8511449

Claim:
A propulsion system of a powered rail vehicle comprising: a fuel engine disposed in the powered rail vehicle; an alternator coupled with and driven by the engine to produce a fuel-based electric current; and a tractive circuit including a traction motor and a conductive bus coupled with the alternator, the conductive bus configured to couple with a power conditioning circuit to receive an external electric current from an external electric power source via the power conditioning circuit, wherein the tractive circuit has a fuel-powered only configuration, a fuel- and electric-powered configuration, and an electric-powered only configuration, the tractive circuit supplying the traction motor with the fuel-based electric current in the fuel-powered only configuration, the tractive circuit supplying the traction motor with at least one of the fuel-based electric current or the external electric current in the fuel- and electric-powered configuration, and the tractive circuit supplying the traction motor with the external electric current in the electric-powered only configuration, and wherein the tractive circuit is configured to be electrically coupled with a utility power grid by the power conditioning circuit and to supply at least some of the fuel-based electric current to the utility power grid.