SNCF CC 80000

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CC 80000
CC 80001 in front of a heating truck after the conversion to diesel drive
CC 80001 in front of a heating truck after the conversion to diesel drive
Numbering: 060 GA 1 - 2
CC 80001 - 80002
Number: 2
Manufacturer: Renault
Year of construction (s): 1959/1961
Axis formula : Co'Co '
Gauge : 1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Length over buffers: 21,300 mm
Height: 4220 mm
Width: 28,800 mm
Service mass: 115.6 t (with gas turbines)
108 t (diesel drive)
Top speed: 128 km / h
Continuous output : 2200 kW (diesel drive)
Number of traction motors: 2
Drive: Gas turbine / diesel

The locomotives of the series CC 80000 of the French state railway SNCF were built as prototypes with gas turbine drive in two copies in the years 1959 to 1961. Manufacturers of the two machines was the work of railway vehicles of the company Renault in Villeneuve-Saint-Georges .

prehistory

The French car manufacturer Renault started building rail vehicles after the First World War . Mine and small locomotives as well as railcars were initially built in its main plant in Boulogne-Billancourt . In 1949 the company bought a factory in Choisy-le-Roi , and the railway sector was relocated from Île Seguin to its facilities in Villeneuve-Saint-Georges . In 1952/53, Renault also developed large diesel and gas turbine locomotives with the types 5040 and 5070 .

Numerous railway companies hoped to improve the performance of locomotives through the use of gas turbines . As early as 1948, the US Union Pacific Railroad had received a locomotive equipped in this way from the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) and General Electric with the GE 101 . By 1961, another 55 gas turbo-electric machines were delivered to the railway company, in which the electricity for the electric traction motors was generated by means of gas turbines .

With the four-axle 040 GA 1 (type 5070), Renault put the first French gas turbine locomotive on the rails in 1953.

Use as gas turbine locomotives

Pescara free-piston engine (above) and gas turbine

In April 1959, another gas turbine locomotive, the Type 5050, left the Renault factory . The six-axle machine with the designation 060 GA 1 was followed two years later by the sister locomotive 060 GA 2. Both were leased from SNCF and were given the company numbers CC 80001 and CC 80002 on January 1, 1962.

The locomotives developed in 1958 were operated with kerosene , the drive they were a double 040 GA 1. Two free-piston engines of the Pescara GS 34 type , built under license and coupled with Rateau gas turbines, served as gas generators . The two three-axle bogies came from the Compagnie des ateliers et forges de la Loire (CAFL), the power transmission to the six drive axles was done mechanically by means of cardan shafts . Thanks to this arrangement, it was possible to move the locomotives with just one drive train, if necessary. They differed mainly in the different couplings between the gas turbine and the gearbox: mechanical (from Renault) in the GA 1, electromagnetic (from Sulzer ) in the GA 2.

The GA 1 was immediately awarded to the SNCF, it was stationed in Nantes and thoroughly tested in the Département Vendée . In 1960 it was relocated to the Achères depot and used in line service between Paris and Cherbourg . After the delivery of the GA 2, both machines came to La Rochelle . In operation they did not achieve the predicted output, it moved at a maximum of 1500 hp - little for locomotives with two drive systems. In addition, the noise generated by the gas turbines was perceived as annoying, and the gas generators proved to be prone to failure. The locomotives were not used in front of passenger trains , but exclusively in express freight traffic between Nantes and Bordeaux , where frequent starts and accelerations could be avoided.

The problems with the gas generators meant that the CC 80002 was taken out of service as early as May 1962. In February 1963, the two locomotives were finally taken out of service, they were returned to Renault and parked there. With this failure, Renault's involvement in locomotive construction ended, the SNCF henceforth favored single-engine diesel locomotives.

CC 80001 as a diesel locomotive

At the beginning of the 1960s, the Compagnie de chemins de fer départementaux (CFD), which, in addition to its work as an operator of secondary railway lines in Montmirail, built diesel locomotives , wanted to demonstrate the suitability of its “asynchro” transmission in the higher power range. As early as 1959, she had built such a 355 kW machine with the 433 F (BB 60001 at SNCF). Instead of developing a large diesel locomotive itself, CFD resorted to the no longer used CC 80000. The CC 80002 only served as a spare parts dispenser and was scrapped in the early 1970s.

The CC 80001 with the nickname “Belphégor” kept its box , the bogies and the mechanical power transmission. It received a third top light and a two-tone horn , the light blue of the original paintwork was replaced by a darker shade. The doors in the middle of the car body were welded.

Two diesel engines of the type SEMT Pielstick 12PA4, each with an output of 1100 kW at 1550 rpm, replaced the gas turbine. The asynchronous gears, which were separated from the engine and the drive shafts during the coupling process, each had eight gears for each direction of travel. The switching process, which could be carried out manually or automatically, happened with the gears standing still - within less than a second - which, however, could lead to a jerky driving style. It was therefore staggered for both engines.

The purpose of the conversion was not to compete with the ongoing orders for high-performance diesel locomotives ( A1AA1A 68000 and BB 67000 ). Rather, the SNCF was supposed to be convinced of the advantages of the asynchronous gearbox developed by CFD for future machines. After all, the efficiency of the diesel engine was 95% compared to 80% for the diesel-electric drive . In addition, the asynchronous locomotives were comparatively lighter and more maintenance-friendly than diesel-electric locomotives, and fuel savings amounted to 20%.

From July 1967 to spring 1968, the converted locomotive was tested in the Morvan in front of heavy freight trains. The positive results induced the CFC to offer them to the SNCF as a rental locomotive. With spare parts obtained from the sister machine, the CC 80001 was moved to Caen in June of that year . In the schedule of the A1AA1A 68000, it was used from the Paris Saint-Lazare station in front of express trains, express freight trains and freight trains. It proved to be reliable, pulling 955 t heavy trains at 128 km / h on the level and on ramps of 10 ‰ 580 t at 81 km / h. However, the SNCF had already ordered the single-engine CC 72000 series and was no longer interested in twin-engine locomotives.

In 1972 the locomotive was relocated to Argentan . On the Paris- Cherbourg route , it easily replaced a double traction of the BB 67000 series, between Paris and Granville one of the A1AA1A 68000 series. The main disadvantage was the lack of a boiler , which is why a heating car had to be placed behind it to heat passenger trains . For this reason it lost its services in high-quality travel in 1976. The breakage of a drive shaft led to its temporary shutdown a year later, as neither the SNCF nor the CFD were interested in the costly repair. At that time, she had covered a total of 1,200,000 km.

Contrary to expectations, the machine was repaired in Montmirail by August 1978 and handed over to the track construction company Desquenne & Giral (D&G). In orange-white paint, it was used, among other things, on the construction site of the LGV Sud-Est high-speed line in gravel and rail transport. In 1985, in view of the upcoming revisions, it was finally shut down and replaced by weaker, but multiple-traction locomotives of the DB class V 200.0 .

Whereabouts

The CC 80001 has been preserved and is being kept by Renault in Flins-sur-Seine for museum purposes. It remained the property of D&G and the company wishes to keep the paintwork.

Remarks

  1. ↑ The advances in hydraulic power transmission led to the abandonment of the asynchro design in the mid-1970s
  2. ↑ Probably due to the noise generated during night trips between La Rochelle and Nantes, based on the demon of the same name in Christian mythology

Web links

Commons : SNCF Class CC 80000  - collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

  • Frédéric Didelot: La CC 80001 . In: Ferrovissime . Jan./Février 2019, No. 97 , 2019, p. 32 ff .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Le matériel ferroviaire Renault at renaultoloog.nl, accessed on January 21, 2019
  2. ↑ a b c d e Frédéric Didelot: 040 GA et 060 GA: Des prototypes sans descendance . In: Ferrovissime . May / June 2019, No. 99 , 2019, pp. 12 ff .
  3. ^ Frédéric Didelot: La CC 80001 Belphégor . In: Ferrovissime . Jan./Février 2019, No. 97 , 2019, p. 44 .
  4. ↑ a b CC 80001 ou Belphégor en Val de Seine , accessed January 20, 2019
  5. ↑ a b Frédéric Didelot: La CC 80001 Belphégor , p. 39.
  6. ^ Frédéric Didelot: La CC 80001 Belphégor , p. 45.
  7. ↑ a b c Frédéric Didelot: La CC 80001 Belphégor , p. 47.
  8. ↑ a b Frédéric Didelot: La CC 80001 Belphégor , p. 49.
  9. ↑ CC 80001 SNCF at trains-europe.fr, accessed on January 20, 2019