SNCF X 4630
The X 4630 series of the French state railway SNCF is a series of two-part diesel railcars that were in scheduled service with the SNCF from 1971 to 2011. With the vehicles of the series X 4300 , X 4500 , X 4750 and X 4900 , it belonged to the family of the so-called Caravelles - due to the engine noise that is reminiscent of the aircraft of the Sud Aviation Caravelle type - which are all at the Ateliers de construction du Nord de la France (ANF) were built.
History and description
Original version
The X 4630 series was largely identical to the previous X 4300 and X 4500 series. The most important difference was the replacement of the mechanical transmission with a hydraulic turbo transmission from Voith of the type T420r. The time required for a gear change was responsible for the low acceleration capacity of the X 4300/4500, especially in the low gears.
113 vehicles of this series were put into service between February 1971 and July 1977 they received the car numbers 4630 to 4742. In each case, a four-axle railcars with only one cab was with a similar control car (model series XR 8400 and XR 8600) coupled found a rubber diaphragm Association the two car bodies . The 38.7 t railcar had 60 seats in 2nd class (seating 3 + 2) and a luggage compartment; like the control car, it was 21,240 mm long with buffers . The control car weighed 23.4 t. It was two-class, depending on the design, there were 12 or 24 places in 1st class and 69 or 49 places in 2nd class available.
The Saurer six-cylinder SDHR diesel engine of the railcar, which was also used in the X 4500, had an output of 295 kW . As a boxer engine , it could be installed under the floor of the railcar. The top speed of the vehicle was 120 km / h.
Unlike most French locomotives, the "Caravelles" received a triple headlights . The railcars and control cars were originally painted red with a cream-colored ribbon of windows. With the other “Caravelle” series, the X 4630 could run in multiple units of a maximum of three units.
The railcar X 4609 of the X 4500 series was retrofitted with a diesel-hydraulic drive in 1996 and was assigned to the X 4630 series as the X 4743.
The single copy X 94630 (with the control car XR 94630) largely corresponded to the type X 4630, but had no first class compartment. The vehicle, painted blue with yellow ribbon windows, was acquired in 1978 by the Syndicat intercommunal des transports publics (SITP) Cannes-Ranguin for the Cannes-Ranguin railway line and, after it was discontinued, sold to the SNCF in 1995, where it was classified under the road number X 4744.
modification
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Given the comfort of the Corail wagons and TGV - high-speed trains a reconstruction of the trains running after "Caravelles" appeared in the 1980s desirable. 40 units were modernized, with 19 units being modified and reinforced to provide better protection for the driver . The 21 units with an unchanged front that were modernized between 1985 and 1987 in the Atéliers du Mans repair shop were painted white with a narrow belly band (“Ambulance” livery). Improved were u. a. also the seats, and each region could decide on the paintwork of the vehicles running there. The weight of the railcars and control cars with new fronts increased by approx. 4 t each, and the car bodies were 21,740 mm long over buffers.
Whereabouts
All vehicles of the series were retired by 2011, the last units were used by the Nevers depot . 41 copies were sold to Regiotrans in Romania , six continue to exist with French museum railways .
Web links
- Trains du Sud-Ouest with coloring after modernization, commissioning and shutdown dates, mileage, depots and whereabouts
- Photo of the X 94630 in Nice train station on flickr.com
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Thomas Estler: Locomotives of the French state railway SNCF . 1st edition. Transpress, Stuttgart 2014, ISBN 978-3-613-71480-9 , pp. 124 f .
- ↑ a b c d Georges Mathieu: Le matériel moteur de la SNCF . 1st edition. Éditions La Vie du Rail, Paris 1992, ISBN 2-902808-48-8 , p. 228 ff .
- ↑ Georges Mathieu: op. Cit. , P. 240 f.
- ↑ X 94630 SNCF at trains-europe.fr, accessed on March 21, 2020
- ↑ Trains du Sud-Ouest at trainsso.pagesperso-orange.fr, accessed on March 21, 2020