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 (electricity), battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime mover (locomotive), ...

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 borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

n State Railway by the

Škoda Works The Škoda Works (, ) was one of the largest European industrial conglomerates of the 20th century. In 1859, Czech engineer Emil Škoda bought a foundry and machine factory in Plzeň, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary that had been established ten ye ...

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

Description

ČD Class 140, a class of very similar locomotives off of which the 22E2 was based Although some lines had been electrified already in the

colonial era Colonial period (a period in a country's history where it was subject to management by a colonial power) may refer to: Continents *European colonization of the Americas * Colonisation of Africa * Western imperialism in Asia Countries * Col ...

, the large-scale electrification of North Korea's railways began in 1956 after the end of the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

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 Czechoslovak State Railways (''Československé státní dráhy'' in Czech or ''Československé štátne dráhy'' in Slovak, often abbreviated to ČSD) was the state-owned railway company of Czechoslovakia. The company was founded in 1918 ...

(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 The Polish State Railways ( , abbr.: PKP S.A.) is a Polish state-owned holding company (legally a sole-shareholder company of the State Treasury) comprising the rail transport holdings of the country's formerly dominant namesake railway oper ...

(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 Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

(as class ЧС1 ''(ChS1)''). All variants of the type were built to operate on the 3,000 V DC

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

. These are dual-cab locomotives with welded-steel bodies and two two-axle

bogies A bogie ( ) (or truck in North American English) comprises two or more wheelsets (two wheels on an axle), in a frame, attached under a vehicle by a pivot. Bogies take various forms in various modes of transport. A bogie may remain normally ...

. 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, or electric multiple unit trains. Traction (engineering), Traction motors are used in electrically powe ...

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′ electric locomotives Standard-gauge locomotives of North Korea