“Fault 257 Blues”
Verse 1
It was half past four in the morning,
Port Voith gave a cry,
VFD #2 went down,
And nobody knew why.
We hit that remote reset,
She came back for a while,
But by five-thirty she quit us,
With a red alarm and a smile.
Chorus
I got the Fault 257 blues,
Network bridge done lost its shoes,
Phase W said, “I’m through,”
And Drive B gave us bad news.
Drive A’s running all alone,
Keeping Port Voith on her own,
Possum, tell me what to do,
I got the Fault 257 blues.
Verse 2
Checked the wires and terminations,
RIOs and MT,
Feedback lines and network cables,
Nothing wrong that we could see.
Racked the breakers, killed the power,
Let her sit five minutes cold,
Brought her back and cleared the alarms,
But Drive B still wouldn’t hold.
Chorus
I got the Fault 257 blues,
Network bridge done lost its shoes,
Phase W said, “I’m through,”
And Drive B gave us bad news.
Drive A’s running all alone,
Keeping Port Voith on her own,
Possum, tell me what to do,
I got the Fault 257 blues.
Bridge
VFD A calibrated,
Smooth as it could be,
But five seconds into Drive B’s turn,
She tripped and looked at me.
DC link was climbing,
Supply voltage holding fine,
But something in that bridge went sideways,
Somewhere down the line.
Verse 3
Now she’s isolated by the breaker,
Follower’s sitting still,
Lead drive’s holding singular mode,
Doing what she will.
Could be power module trouble,
Could be current feedback lies,
Could be gate drive ghosts in Phase W,
Hiding right before our eyes.
Final Chorus
I got the Fault 257 blues,
Network bridge done lost its shoes,
NW1 went down too,
And Drive B gave us bad news.
Drive A’s running all alone,
Keeping Port Voith on her own,
Possum, tell me what to do,
I got the Fault 257 blues.
Outro
So here I stand, Ch Eng onboard,
On the good ship Edison,
With management copied in the chain,
And Maintenance listening in.
We’ll keep her turning best we can,
Till GE gives a clue,
But tonight I’ll sing to Drive 4B,
And the Fault 257 blues.
