The Škoda Type 22E₂ type locomotive is a multipurpose

electric locomotive An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime movers, such as diesel engines or gas ...

built for the

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

n State Railway by the

Škoda Works The Škoda Works ( cs, Škodovy závody, ) was one of the largest European industrial conglomerates of the 20th century, founded by Czech engineer Emil Škoda in 1859 in Plzeň, then in the Kingdom of Bohemia, Austrian Empire. It is the predece ...

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

Description

Although some lines had been electrified already in the colonial era, the large-scale electrification of North Korea's railways began in 1956 after the end of the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

and the subsequent reconstruction of North Korea's railway infrastructure. To work the newly electrified lines, an order was placed with the Škoda Works in Czechoslovakia for electric locomotives of works Type 22E₂, based on the Type 12E locomotives built by Škoda for the Czechoslovak State Railways (ČSD class E 499.0). The Type 12E was developed by Škoda Works based on the technology of the BLS Class Ae 4/4 built by SLM Winterthur. The first prototype was completed in 1953, and production of types 12E₁—12E₆ continued until 1958 for the ČSD and the Polish State Railways (as class ET13), along with the very similar derivative types - the Type 22E₂ for North Korea, and Types 24E₀, 41E₀—41E₂ and 29E₀ for the

Soviet Railways The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

(as class ЧС1). All variants of the type were built to operate on the 3,000 V DC

system A system is a group of Interaction, interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. A system, surrounded and influenced by its environment (systems), environment, is described by its boundaries, ...

. These are dual-cab locomotives with welded-steel bodies and two two-axle bogies. Each bogie has two six-pole DC

traction motor A traction motor is an electric motor used for propulsion of a vehicle, such as locomotives, electric vehicle, electric or hydrogen vehicles, elevators or electric multiple unit. Traction motors are used in electrically powered rail vehicles (ele ...

s, one for each axle. Current collection is via pantograph from overhead lines; the on-board electrical system is 48 V. The total number of Type 22E2 locomotives ordered by the Korean State Railways is not known, but at least three are still in service as of October 2015. Some have been rebuilt in various ways, such as the addition of 'bumpers' on the ends and other features unique to individual units; these have been renumbered (one such rebuilt locomotive carries the number plates of the Ch'ŏngnyŏnjŏl Kinyŏm-class "Pulg'ŭn'gi 4011", but the unmodified examples continue to carry their original 전기50 series numbers. They are painted in the standard light blue over dark green or light green over dark green scheme used on most other electric locomotives; this scheme is very similar to the livery used on Czechoslovak and Soviet examples of this type.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Skoda Type 22E2 Škoda locomotives 3000 V DC locomotives Bo′Bo′ locomotives Standard gauge locomotives of North Korea