Locomotives: what we know about the self-propelled rail carriage

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 the freight and passenger traffic, which archaic steam locomotives could not cope with. Now electric locomotives have occupied their niche, organically dividing duties and railway branches with diesel locomotives. For those who know about locomotives a little more than nothing, we have prepared this post. In it we will tell about the very first electric locomotives of the XIX century, the emergence of electrified roads in the USSR and Japan.

First electric trains

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

In 1851, on the road between American Washington and Bladensburg, Professor Smithsonian Institution Charles Page launched his electric train, which reached a speed of 30 km / h.


The drawing is all that has come down to our days from the electro-car Charles Page. Source: Wikimedia

For several decades, the inventors offered their ideas on improving electric transport. Michael Faraday developed an electric generator that allowed him to constantly produce a large current (as opposed to low-power and expensive galvanic cells). As a result, in 1879, at the Berlin exhibition, Werner von Siemens built a three-hundred-meter annular railway, along which a passenger train of an electric locomotive and three carriages with benches moved, receiving a direct current of 150 V from the third rail. Electricity was generated by a steam dynamo installed in a pavilion nearby. The engine of an electric locomotive developed 2.2 kW (3 hp) of power and reached a speed of 13 km / h. During the exhibition for four months, the train transported 86 thousand passengers, each of whom paid for the ticket 20 pfennigs who went to charity. The Berlin exhibition and the Siemens electric train can be considered the first example of commercial transportation by electric rail.

The appearance of high-speed electric trains paved the railroad tracks to where the locomotives, with their smoke and steam, were ordered to enter - underground. In 1890, an underground railway line, 5.6 km long, opened in London, and 16 electric locomotives with a capacity of 36.7 kW supplied Mather & Platt and Siemens Bros. It was the London Underground.

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

The first Russian electric railway began to be built between St. Petersburg and Krasnaya Gorka in 1913, but the First World War, which had begun, halted the project - the stretch to St. Petersburg Strelna was now given to tram traffic (route No. 36). After the revolution, according to the electrification plan of the country, the active construction of railways for electric locomotives began, the first of which was laid in 1926 from Baku to Sabunchu. Then electric trains began to appear on the roads going from Moscow.

The 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 intended to use engines of domestic production.


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

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

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


VL19, the first electric locomotive of the Soviet development. Source: Wikimedia

Electric locomotives are not the place

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

The United States was the first country to begin the electrification of railways. At the very beginning of the 20th century, the eastern coast of the country switched to electric traction - to electrify all the main branches at a stroke was fantastically expensive, so passenger traffic 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 pass little by little. Diesel locomotives work on any route without wires and traction substations, and with infrequent trips the diesel went cheaper than electricity. If the electrification of the USSR gave rise to an excess of electricity due to the construction of hydropower plants, in America electricity was extracted 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 we did not get to us. Source: Wikimedia / Drew Jacksich

World War II briefly influenced the preferences of railway workers - gasoline and diesel, which became the fuel for military equipment, were sent to the needs of the army, so electric locomotives again became the more profitable type of locomotive. Electrification of railways continued until the early 1950s, and more specifically, until the post-war economic expansion. Airplanes, the active construction of asphalt roads and the country's automobilization have slowed down not only electrification, but also the development of rail transport in principle. By the 21st century, only 220,000 of the 409,000 kilometers of track remained, and 80% of them have no passenger traffic. The reality is harsh: airplanes and trucks go faster and cheaper.

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

Special japanese way

In Japan, the railways became the main form of passenger transport, literally absorbed into the national DNA. In no other country in the world do trains carry as many passengers as in Japan. If in Russia the railways transport about 1.15 billion passengers a year (excluding the metro), in Japan, with a network of three times the length, more than 9 billion. And this is with a population of 122 million people! And in huge China (1.386 billion inhabitants) and India (1.339 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 massive of which is the narrow Cape Gauge 1067 mm wide (22,300 km, 13,200 km electrified). The European gauge (1,435 mm) totals 3,978 km of track, the rare Scottish gauge (1,372 mm) is 96 km, and finally 48 km of narrow gauge (762 mm). For comparison, the track width in Russia is equal to 1520 mm.


The section of the path on Sakhalin, where the Cape Rut flows into the Russian. Source: Wikimedia

The first railway line opened in Japan in 1872, from that moment on, the Cape Gauge tracks were built in the country. Now there is no single opinion as to 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 gauge only because of the cheapness of its laying and the efficiency of the respective trains. Subsequently, this feature turned into a problem for the development of high-speed rail transport, which gave rise to the emergence of alternative European rutting.

The first successful experience of Japan with the European gauge took place in 1934, when Asia Express was launched between the cities of Dalian and Changchun in South Manchuria, which developed a huge 130 km / h for those times. Due to the wide gauge, Asia-Express had spacious comfortable air-conditioned cars and a viewing platform.


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

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

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


Shinkansen discovery gave rise to high-speed passenger traffic in Japan. The photo shows the composition of Shinkansen series 0. Source: KYODO

In 1964, Shinkansen was officially launched, the first leg of the journey connected Osaka and Tokyo. Shinkansen series 0 electric train operated on 25 kV, 60 Hz alternating current, 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 electric trains Shinkansen travel at speeds up to 260 km / h for safety.

Surprisingly, in spite of the record number of passenger traffic, the Japanese railways accounted for an endlessly small share of cargo - about 1% of traffic throughout the country. That, however, did not affect the development of the electric 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 Toshiba electric locomotives, and they are also shipped to China, India, Turkey, and New Zealand.

Toshiba's contribution

In 1926, the world saw the first electric Shibaura. It was a battery model AB10, made to order of the Arsenal of the Japanese Army. Shibaura was faced with the task of developing a locomotive that does not give sparks. An ammunition store or chemical factory is not the best place to spar with pantographs or a firebox pipe. In 1931, the AB10 was redesigned for widespread use, replacing batteries with pantographs for power supply from the contact network, and gave an index of EB10.

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


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

But at Class EH800, the most powerful Japanese electric locomotive, it is 4000 kW.


Toshiba's Type EH800 is the most powerful Japanese electric locomotive today - 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 sealed permanent-magnet synchronous motors, which are characterized by silence and high resource due to protection from dust and dirt, which inevitably settle inside unsealed air-cooled engines. According to the results of Russian studies, 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 the single-section models, the Chinese HXD3B is considered as such, weighing 150 tons and issuing 9600 kW. But among the multi-section electric locomotives, the pedestal deservedly occupies the Russian 4ES5K, consisting of four sections. Its 13120 kW of power formally surpassed only 3ES10С (13200 kW), which, however, cannot be considered as a single product.

Russian 4ES5K - 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), in 2015, accelerated to 603 km / h. But if we talk about traditional rail trains, the record holds the passenger French TGV V150 - 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 was the longest passenger train that traveled through Belgium as part of a charity trip - 1733 m. But the Canadian container ship with diesel locomotives was the longest train in principle. Its length was an incredible 4.2 km.

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