Abstract: A system obtains respective measurements of relevant electrical parameters of an electrical motor of a vehicle such as a locomotive during operational stages of the motor and a system driven thereby. Based on the respective measurements, the monitoring system then determines respective electrical patterns corresponding to the operational stages. Next, the monitoring system compares the respective electrical patterns corresponding to the operational stages with respective baseline electrical patterns modeled for the operational stages to yield a comparison. Then, the monitoring system determines a status of any of the motor components, as well as those of the system driven thereby, based on a comparison between baseline and observed operating parameters. Trend pattern monitoring is used to eliminate storing massive volumes of trend data by capturing and characterizing the important moments when data values change in a significant manner.