EP09 (also manufactured as Pafawag 104E) is a Polish

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 ...

used by the Polish railways,

Polskie Koleje Państwowe (''PKP S.A.''; en, Polish State Railways, Inc.) is the dominant railway operator in Poland. The company was founded when the former state-owned enterprise was divided into several units based on the need for separation between infrastructure ...

(PKP) and produced by

Pafawag Pafawag (Państwowa Fabryka Wagonów) (English: National Rail Carriage Factory) is a Polish locomotive manufacturer based in Wrocław. The company became part of Adtranz in 1997 as Adtranz Pafawag, and in 2001 part of Bombardier Transportation. I ...

Wrocław Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...

between 1986 and 1997.

History

Construction

Work on designing new family of Polish locomotives, able to pull trains with speeds higher than 125 km/h, started in the 1970s. Of those plans only one was finally realised, which resulted in construction of EP09 locomotives. In the beginning of the 1980s the CMK line (rail trunk line) was prepared for passenger transport. Before that time it had been used exclusively for freight transport. At first EU05 and EP05 locomotives were used to run services on this line, but Polish railways needed faster locomotives, reaching 160 km/h. The locomotive was designed in Ośrodek Badawczo-Rozwojowy Pojazdów Szynowych (''Rail Vehicles Research and Development Centre'') in Poznań. The prototype was ready in 1986, built in Pafawag in Wrocław. The locomotive was intended to be built with western parts, but severe financial restrictions caused many modern solutions to be abandoned. Co-operation with

USSR 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 nationa ...

gave little effect as well. Additionally, after the collapse of

Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...

, Poland was forced to use old EP07 solutions in later series of EP09.

Deployment

It is impossible to find two identical locomotives of this class, as the design changed after each machine was completed. The First EP09 locomotive was presented in 1986, the next one in 1987. On May 29, 1988, according to the new timetable, those two locomotives started regular service. In 2005 EP09's livery was revised and unveiled. The locomotives are being repainted in during scheduled servicing. All the locomotives produced, except for EP09-035 (which was involved in the

Szczekociny rail crash The Szczekociny rail crash occurred on 3 March 2012 when two passenger trains collided head-on near the town of Szczekociny, Silesian Voivodeship, Poland. Sixteen people died in the incident and 58 were injured. An investigative report showed t ...

), are still fully operational and are deployed in the locomotive depots in Kraków and Warsaw. 12 units work in Kraków Prokocim depot, the rest are assigned to Warsaw. Besides running on the CMK line, those locomotives can be spotted on Warsaw–Poznań–Szczecin, Warsaw–Poznań–Wrocław, Warsaw–Lublin and Warsaw–Kielce lines. EP09 series proved itself to be highly defective, e.g. in 1996 PKP was forced to replace 10

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 and 24

bogie A bogie ( ) (in some senses called a truck in North American English) is a chassis or framework that carries a wheelset, attached to a vehicle—a modular subassembly of wheels and axles. Bogies take various forms in various modes of transp ...

s. In the same time serious breakdowns of

compressor A compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by reducing its volume. An air compressor is a specific type of gas compressor. Compressors are similar to pumps: both increase the pressure on a fluid and both can transp ...

s were noticed. In the end of 2000 EP09 were temporarily sent to Gdańsk. This was done in order to familiarise engineers with this type of locomotive before raising maximum allowed speed on the Warsaw–Gdańsk line.

Modernisation

In August 2021 PKP Intercity issued a request for proposal to comprehensively modernise all 46 locomotives, bringing them up to modern standard, a.o. replacing DC traction motors with asynchronous ones and motor-generator sets with switch-mode inverters, modernising bogies, and preparing the locomotives for the installation of

ETCS The European Train Control System (ETCS) is the signalling and control component of the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS). It is a replacement for legacy train protection systems and designed to replace the many incompatible s ...

Technical data

The EP09 is a

Bo-Bo B-B and Bo-Bo are the Association of American Railroads (AAR) and British classifications of wheel arrangement for railway locomotives with four axles in two individual bogies. They are equivalent to the B′B′ and Bo′Bo′ classifications in ...

electric locomotive working in 3000 V DC electric system. The body is placed on two bogies, with each bogie having two separately propelled axles. Driver's cabs are located on each end of the loco's body. There are battery box and air tanks mounted between bogies. Traction motors and transmissions are locked inside bogies. Behind each cab is the machine compartment. High-voltage compartment is situated in the middle of the locomotive. EP09 is the first Polish locomotive to have electro-dynamic brakes. This enables braking the locomotive using the motors working as generators. Other modifications to EP09 were e.g. ergonomic dashboard and windscreens equipped with internal heating. Since locomotive number 38 the system of suspending locomotive on bogies was changed into

Flexicoil Flexicoil suspension is a type of secondary suspension for railway vehicles, typically having steel coil springs between the bogie trucks and chassis/frame of a passenger coach, goods freight wagon, or locomotive. Suspension systems using ste ...

and single pantographs (DSA200, Stemmann production) were mounted instead of the previously used double ones. Another important change during the production process is installing

air conditioning Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...

system (since locomotive number 40). For a long time PKP worked on bringing all machines to the same standard as the last two locomotives (046 and 047) brought into service in January 1998.

Nicknames

* Dziewiątka (''The Nine'') - after the number in the name * Epoka (''The Epoch'') - after the first two letters of the name

Accidents

On 3 March 2012 the EP09 with number 035 was involved in the

. The locomotive was later scrapped.

References

{{PKP Locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1986 Pafawag locomotives Bo′Bo′ locomotives 3000 V DC locomotives

EP09 EP09 (also manufactured as Pafawag 104E) is a Polish electric locomotive used by the Polish railways, Polskie Koleje Państwowe (PKP) and produced by Pafawag of Wrocław between 1986 and 1997. History Construction Work on designing new famil ...

Science and technology in Poland Standard gauge locomotives of Poland