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Hi Tony, having previously worked on heavy duty switchgear (but not railway locomotives) it sounds like you experienced a contact problem, sometimes where the two ends of electrical contacts join the current passing through them can create an amount of arcing which can weld the two ends together hence why the loco wouldn't shut down.
Eventually the current passing through this temporary contact will become too much for the joint then the two will seperate resulting in a flash over. In most cases you can still operate the switch gear afterwards although the contacts would wear out sooner rather than later, hence why you managed to keep going.
One of my old workmates was working on a switchboard when this happened to him, the flashover resulted in him being burnt from his chest to knees, and it was made worse by a cleaning lady who was working in the corridor outside rushed in to see what was going on, saw him lying on the floor smouldering and then fainted landing on top of him pushing his melted overalls further into his wounds.
He did make a full recovery after months of skin grafts.
Cheers John
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