The most powerful serial locomotives in the world

Almost a couple of years ago, on July 31, 2020, the railway world was shocked by a message from China: the world's most powerful Shen-24 locomotive was put into operation, whose power plant develops 39 hp. With. Prior to this, the Russian electric locomotive 194ES4K with a capacity of 5 thousand 17 "horses" was considered the record holder.




As you can see, the Chinese managed to create a car that is more than twice as strong as the previous leader. The new electric locomotive has six sections, 106 m long. However, this does not mean that the more of them, the higher the power. Outrageous characteristics have been achieved through the use of innovative technologies. The electric locomotive will carry coal between the provinces of Shans and Shaanxi, where there is the richest deposit of black "gold". And what other railway equipment can compete with the Chinese locomotive?

4ES5K-004

This Russian car was demonstrated to the public in 2017 at the world exhibition EXPO, held in Shcherbinka near Moscow. Electric locomotive 4ES5K-004 was designed and built in Novocherkassk. At that time, he was the most powerful in the world and therefore even got his own name - "Ermak". The locomotive was not produced in a single copy: the South Ural Railway (Kartala depot) received four electric locomotives.



"Strongman" is operated in the most difficult area in terms of relief from Kartal to Inzer, through Magnitogorsk. There are many steep ascents and descents, for overcoming which earlier it was necessary to make couplings of locomotives. Now all the difficulties of the terrain are overcome by one 4ES5K-004. Its main technical parameters:

• ✅ power supply - alternating current with a voltage of 25 thousand volts, a frequency of 50 Hz
  
• ✅ power - 13120 kW (17837 hp)
  
• ✅ maximum speed - 110 km / h
  
• ✅ length - 64 m
  
• ✅ total weight - 400 tons
  

The locomotive has a through passage through the sections. And not all of them are occupied by mechanisms: there is a rest room and a sanitary module.

IORE: Swedish-Norwegian electric locomotive

It is in third place in terms of developed power, reaching 14 thousand 483 liters. With. The 2011-axle locomotive was specially designed and built for the LKAB division of Malmtrafik, which mines several hundred thousand tons of ore per year. Development is carried out in Sweden and Norway. The name of the electric locomotive comes from two words: Iron (“iron”) and Ore (“ore”). In XNUMX, it was the most powerful locomotive in the world.

HXD2 and BKG1-001

The first of them is made in China and has a power plant with a capacity of 13 thousand 410 liters. With. The peculiarity of this monster lies not only in the mass of the transported cargo (up to 7 thousand tons), but also in tolerance for severe frosts, up to -40 °. However, the locomotive built on its basis under the index BKG1-001, which means “Belarusian-Chinese freight”, received a greater “circulation” and fame.



A $100 million agreement on the joint production of electric locomotives was concluded in 2010. China pledged to supply 12 pieces of equipment to Belarus. Two samples were tested in 2012. The locomotive transported 93 trains in different "weight categories": from 4,25 thousand to 8,3 thousand tons. Up to 91 cars were used! The electric locomotive could reach speeds of up to 120 km / h.



The cabin of the Chinese-Belarusian locomotive is quite comfortable: the control system is modern, air conditioning is provided, there is a separate bathroom, a cabinet with a microwave oven and a refrigerator.

VL85-231

Russian serial electric locomotive, well known on the railway lines of Eastern Siberia. The power of the locomotive, produced from 1983 to 1994, is 12 thousand 550 liters. With. The car was produced in Novocherkassk: the series was launched in 1985. According to the test results, the electric locomotive was assigned the highest quality category: a total of 272 copies were produced. Before the advent of the Swedish-Norwegian IORE, it was the most powerful mass-produced electric locomotive in the world. Informally, the drivers among themselves for the characteristic appearance called the locomotive "bull" or "crocodile".



The length of the electric locomotive is 45 m, the maximum speed is 110 km/h. The design includes a pair of six-axle sections. On the locomotive (albeit not immediately), new NB-514 engines were first tested, and then constantly “registered”. They were distinguished by a reduced (by a factor of 4 compared to their predecessors!) flow resistance of the air ducts. As a result, the number of fans was halved. After installing the new engine, the cabin interior was changed: instead of two separate control panels for the driver and his assistant, they put one common panel.

Gas turbine locomotive GT1

This locomotive is not in the first place in terms of power. However, he has his achievements. GT1 is the most powerful mainline gas turbine locomotive operating on liquefied "blue" fuel. And the second “title” is the most powerful railway type of equipment in the world, moving with the help of an internal combustion engine.



The gas turbine locomotive did not appear at someone's whim, but by order of the Russian Railways management, which planned to increase the number of its equipment running on liquefied gas to 30%. This “height” should be reached by 2030. The development of the locomotive started in 2006. By this time, NTK them. Kuznetsov (Samara) already had in his arsenal an almost finished gas turbine engine NK-361. The power unit was finalized, tested, and in 2008 the locomotive equipped with it pulled its first train. The “finest hour” of the GT1 came on 12.10/2009/170, when the gas turbine locomotive was officially considered the most powerful in the world, which was recorded in the Guinness Book of Records. The locomotive dragged 16 (!) Cars with a total weight of 1 thousand tons. However, the first production model, called GT002h-2013, was released only in XNUMX.



Mass production never started. By 2020, there were only two locomotives of this type in service. Many "pitfalls" were discovered: for example, the only place where the locomotive could be refueled with liquefied gas was the Novosverdlovskaya CHPP, located far from the operational site. I had to buy fuel in Perm and transport it from there in tankers, which costs money. The second problem is the impossibility of long-term storage of fuel on a gas turbine locomotive, since the pressure and temperature of the fuel gradually increase and it has to be vented into the atmosphere, which is unsafe. In the future, it is planned to build several new gas filling stations, but so far RZD cannot come to an agreement with Gazprom.

Conclusion

As can be seen from the facts, Russia, which occupies the third place in the world in terms of the length of railways (after the USA and China), confidently occupies a leading position in terms of the construction of railway equipment (it is strange that America somehow does not participate in this). Further development is hampered by poor infrastructure, and it remains to be hoped that differences between departments will be overcome.