According to the characteristics of the cooling tower vibration signals in the＂harmonious＂power locomotive, designs the vibration test platform. By means of programming technology of LabVIEW, realizes the PC software and real-time display of the vibration signals. Applies the method of empirical mode decomposition to reconstruction filter and time-frequency analysis of the vibration signals, and provides the basis for cooling tower faults judgment. By comparing the proposed method with Butterworth filter, proves the method′s advantages. The experiment results show that the proposed method can accurately judge the cooling tower vibration condition, improves the supervision quality and provides a guarantee for the normal operation of power locomotive.