Locomotives: what we know about self-propelled rail carriages



    Electricity helped create incredibly powerful and fast locomotives without caustic exhaust. In the first half of the twentieth century, it was they who helped to increase cargo and passenger transportation, which archaic steam engines could not cope with. Now electric locomotives have occupied their niche, organically sharing responsibilities and railway lines with diesel locomotives. For those who know a little more about locomotives than nothing, we prepared this post. In it we will talk about the very first electric locomotives of the 19th century, the origin of electrified roads in the USSR and Japan.

    The first electric trains


    In the XIX century, inventors tried to find new areas of application of electricity. In 1837, the Scottishman Robert Davidson created a model of an electric rail vehicle, and in 1842 introduced the first Galvani electric locomotive with galvanic cells. Galvani was tested in Scotland on a section of the Glasgow-Edinburgh route, where he traveled with a load of 6 tons for more than two kilometers at a speed of 6 km / h. Due to its low power and high cost (it was four times more expensive to maintain batteries than burning coal), Davidson stopped developing his invention.

    In 1851, Charles Page professor at the Smithsonian Institution launched his electric train at a speed of 30 km / h on the road between American Washington and Bladesburg.


    Drawing - that’s all that came to our days from Charles Page electric car. Source: Wikimedia

    For several decades, inventors have been proposing ideas for improving electric vehicles. Michael Faraday developed an electric generator that allowed to constantly generate a large current (unlike low-power and expensive galvanic cells). As a result, in 1879 at the Berlin exhibition, Werner von Siemens built a three-hundred-meter ring railway, along which a passenger train of an electric locomotive and three trolleys with benches received a constant current of 150 V from the third rail. Electricity was generated by a steam dynamo installed in a nearby pavilion. The electric locomotive engine developed 2.2 kW (3 hp) of power and reached a speed of 13 km / h. During the exhibition, for four months, the composition transported 86 thousand passengers, each of whom paid 20 pfennigs for a ticket to go to charity.

    The emergence of high-speed electric trains paved the railway tracks to the place where the entrance to the steam engine with their smoke and steam was ordered - underground. An underground railway line with a length of 5.6 km was opened in London in 1890, and 16 electric locomotives with a capacity of 36.7 kW were delivered by Mather & Platt and Siemens Bros. It was the London Underground.

    In 1895, an electrified stretch of 11 km appeared on the Baltimore-Ohio American railroad route, part of which lay underground in the city. However, further the electrification of railways in the United States moved slowly.

    The first Russian electric railway began to be built between St. Petersburg and Krasnaya Gorka in 1913, but the outbreak of World War I stopped the project - the constructed section to St. Petersburg Strelna is now given for tram traffic (route No. 36). After the revolution, according to the country's electrification plan, active construction of railways for electric locomotives began, the first of which was laid in 1926 from Baku to Sabunchi. Then electric trains began to appear on roads coming from Moscow.

    Own production of electric locomotives in the USSR did not exist at that time, so in 1932 8 locomotives for new roads were purchased from General Electric, and only two of them were supplied with electric motors, and for the remaining six it was supposed to use domestic engines.


    SI is one of the first imported electric locomotives in the USSR. Source: Wikimedia

    Two fully equipped models were called C10, and six workpieces and later manufactured under license by electric locomotives, for which 340 kW engines were built by the Dynamo plant, were unusually named SS - Suramsky Soviet, named after the Suramsky pass, for which they were originally and purchased. Modified electric locomotives of the C family were finally decommissioned only in 1979.

    Formally, the SS was not a Soviet electric locomotive, because the imported model was taken as the basis. So, the first domestic electric locomotive should be considered VL19 of 1932, which was really designed in the USSR.


    VL19, the first Soviet-made electric locomotive. Source: Wikimedia


    There is no place for electric locomotives


    Surprisingly, powerful and efficient locomotives for electrified railways did not take root everywhere. Due to the need for costly construction of infrastructure, electric traction has become popular in small countries, trunk lines and in places with difficult terrain. But the history of electric locomotives in the United States is somewhat dramatic.

    The United States was the first country to begin electrifying railways. At the very beginning of the 20th century, the eastern coast of the country switched to electric traction - electrifying all the main branches with a swoop was fantastically expensive, so passenger transport between neighboring states was given to electric locomotives. But with the popularization of diesel engines and the invention of the diesel locomotive, electric locomotives began to gradually take over. Diesel locomotives operate on any path without wires and traction substations, and with infrequent trips, diesel came out cheaper than electricity. If the electrification of the USSR generated an excess of electricity due to the construction of a hydroelectric power station, in America, electricity was produced mainly by burning coal.


    Handsome A (GE-750) left American Railways in the early 1980s. By the way, initially the electric locomotive was designed for the USSR, but because of the Cold War, it never got to us. Source: Wikimedia / Drew Jacksich

    World War II briefly affected the preferences of railway workers - gasoline and diesel, which became fuel for military equipment, were sent to the needs of the army, so electric locomotives again became a more profitable type of locomotive. Electrification of the railroads continued until the early 1950s, or rather, until the post-war economic recovery. Airplanes, active construction of asphalt roads and motorization of the country slowed down not only electrification, but also the development of railway transport in principle. By the 21st century, only 220,000 remained from 409 thousand kilometers of tracks, and 80% of them lack passenger connections. The reality is harsh: airplanes and trucks go faster and cheaper.

    Now in the USA electrified railways are found only on suburban lines and several branches between the eastern states, and diesel locomotives move along the remaining, not yet dismantled tracks.

    Special Japanese way


    In Japan, railways have become the main form of passenger transport, literally soaking in the national DNA. In no other country in the world do trains carry as many passengers as they do in Japan. While in Russia, railways carry about 1.15 billion passengers a year (excluding metro), in Japan, with a network that is three times shorter, more than 9 billion. And this is with the country's population of 122 million! And in huge China (1.386 billion inhabitants) and India (1.399 billion people), trains carry 3 billion and 8.26 billion passengers a year, respectively.

    Japan’s railways are unique in that the country uses four types of gauge at once, the most popular of which is the narrow Cape gauge 1067 mm wide (22300 km, 13200 km electrified). The European gauge (1435 mm) has 3978 km of track, the rare Scottish gauge (1372 mm) - 96 km and finally 48 km of narrow gauge (762 mm). For comparison, the track gauge in Russia is 1520 mm.


    The section of the road to Sakhalin, where the Cape flows into the Russian. Source: Wikimedia

    The first railway line opened in Japan in 1872, from that moment on, the Cape Railway tracks were built in the country. Now there is no unequivocal opinion why Japan took the narrow gauge as the basis of its roads. It is believed that this was the will of a scrupulous official who preferred the Cape rut only because of the cheapness of its construction and the cost-effectiveness of the corresponding trains. Subsequently, this feature turned into a problem for the development of high-speed rail transport, which gave rise to the emergence of an alternative European rut.

    The first successful experience of Japan with the European gauge took place in 1934, when the Asia-Express train was launched between the cities of Dalian and Changchun in southern Manchuria, which developed at that time a huge speed of 130 km / h. Thanks to the wide gauge, Asia Express had spacious, comfortable air-conditioned wagons with a viewing platform.


    The locomotive of the same Asia-Express can now be seen in the Shenyang Railway Museum. Source: Wikimedia / Arnie97

    Shortly before the war, Japanese authorities, seeing the economic prospects of the European gauge, were preparing to implement a project of a railway tunnel to the Korean Peninsula, but in 1943 they had to abandon the idea, as well as the Asia Express.

    After the war, Japan continued to expand its existing narrow-gauge road network, but the European gauge was not forgotten. Economic growth required the construction of high-speed lines, but the existing Cape track lines were not adapted to travel at speeds faster than 110 km / h. So the Shinkansen project was born, the essence of which was the construction of new lines for high-speed passenger trains connecting the largest cities throughout the country. It was based on the European track.


    The opening of Shinkansen gave rise to high-speed passenger traffic in Japan. Pictured is the composition of Shinkansen Series 0. Source: KYODO

    In 1964, Shinkansen was officially launched, the first leg connecting Osaka and Tokyo. The Shinkansen Series 0 electric train worked on alternating current 25 kV, 60 Hz, had a power of 15877 kW and accelerated to 210 km / h. Since then, the Shinkansen route network has stretched from the very south of the country to the northern island of Hokkaido - the same 3989 km mentioned earlier. Modern Shinkansen electric trains travel at speeds up to 260 km / h for safety reasons.

    Surprisingly, in spite of the record number of passenger traffic, Japanese railways account for a vanishingly small share of cargo - about 1% of traffic throughout the country. Which, however, did not affect the development of the locomotive industry. Several large Japanese companies, including Toshiba, produce very interesting and economical electric locomotives, most of which are exported. For example, industrial railways in South Africa operate on Toshiba electric locomotives, and they are also delivered to China, India, Turkey and New Zealand.

    Toshiba Contribution


    In 1926, the first Shibaura electric locomotive saw the light. It was an AB10 battery model, commissioned by the Japanese Army Arsenal. Shibaura was faced with the task of developing a locomotive that did not produce sparks. An ammunition depot or a chemical factory is not the best place to spark with pantographs or a fire tube. In 1931, the AB10 was redone for widespread use, replacing the batteries with pantographs for power from the contact network, and gave the index EB10.

    By the way, Japanese railways again returned to the idea of ​​a battery locomotive in the 21st century. Toshiba has created the first Japanese hybrid of a diesel locomotive and an electric locomotive powered by Type HD300 lithium-ion batteries. The hybrid meets the requirements of economy and environmental friendliness: during operation, the Type HD300 operates with a diesel engine that also recharges batteries. But in the city or during maneuvering, the hybrid switches to autonomous electric power, which completely eliminates diesel exhaust. True, the power of the Type HD300 is very modest - only 500 kW.


    Type HD300 - the first Japanese hybrid electric / diesel locomotive. Not very high-torque, but versatile and environmentally friendly. Source: Toshiba

    But the Class EH800, the most powerful Japanese electric locomotive, has 4000 kW.


    Toshiba's Type EH800 is the most powerful Japanese electric locomotive to date - 4,000 kW of net power. Source: Toshiba

    Toshiba not only collects electric locomotives, but also constantly works on innovations. Now the company’s locomotives use hermetic synchronous motors with permanent magnets, which are quiet and have a long resource due to protection from dust and dirt, which inevitably settle inside unpressurized air-cooled engines. According to the results of Russian research, such engines are economical and efficient.


    Toshiba's permanent magnet synchronous motor makes electric trains quiet, durable and economical. Source: Toshiba

    The most of the most...


    • What is the most powerful locomotive in the world? Among single-section models, the Chinese HXD3B is considered to be such, weighing 150 tons and issuing 9600 kW. But among the multi-section electric locomotives, the Russian 4ES5K, consisting of four sections, deservedly occupies a pedestal. Its 3,120 kW of power formally surpassed only 3ES10S (13,200 kW), which, however, cannot be considered a single product.


    The Russian 4ES5K is the most powerful electric locomotive, which is a single product. Source: Wikimedia / Xenotron

    • The fastest train to date is the Japanese L0 Series magnetic cushion (MagLev), which in 2015 accelerated to 603 km / h. But if we talk about traditional rail trains, the French passenger TGV V150 holds a record of 574 km / h.


    The Japanese L0 Series is the fastest train in the world. Source: Wikimedia / Maryland GovPics

    • Among the trains with an electric locomotive, the longest train turned out to be 1733 m following a charity trip in Belgium. But the longest train in principle turned out to be a Canadian container ship with diesel locomotives. Its length was an incredible 4.2 km.


    A part of the longest train in the world - from the first diesel locomotive to the last car, the train stretches for 4.2 km

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