Electroputere S.A. (which translates as ''Electropower'' in English) is a

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

n company based in

Craiova Craiova (, also , ), is Romania's 6th Cities in Romania, largest city and capital of Dolj County, and situated near the east bank of the river Jiu River, Jiu in central Oltenia. It is a longstanding political center, and is located at approximatel ...

. Founded in 1949, it is one of the largest industrial companies in Romania. Electroputere has produced more than 2,400

diesel locomotive A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving whee ...

s, and 1,050

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 ...

s for the Romanian, Bulgarian, Chinese, and Polish railways, additionally producing other urban vehicles and complex equipment.

Products

Electroputere are currently manufactures of: * Industrial electrical parts –

circuit breaker A circuit breaker is an electrical safety device designed to protect an electrical circuit from damage caused by an overcurrent or short circuit. Its basic function is to interrupt current flow to protect equipment and to prevent the risk ...

transformer A transformer is a passive component that transfers electrical energy from one electrical circuit to another circuit, or multiple circuits. A varying current in any coil of the transformer produces a varying magnetic flux in the transformer' ...

s etc. * Industrial

electric motor An electric motor is an Electric machine, electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a Electromagneti ...

s & Converters * Heavy duty power

s *

Railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

and Urban vehicles. They also have divisions specialising in: *

Forging Forging is a manufacturing process involving the shaping of metal using localized compressive forces. The blows are delivered with a hammer (often a power hammer) or a die. Forging is often classified according to the temperature at which i ...

and molding metal * Equipment repairing * Tools modernisation.

Electric and diesel-electric locomotives

Export orders

A total of 1,105 locomotives were delivered between 1972 and 1991 to railway companies in the following countries: * Bulgaria * China * Greece * Iran * Poland * United Kingdom * Yugoslavia One of its more notable foreign orders was for the Class 56 locomotives for

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

. The 30 locomotives were outsourced to Electroputere because

Brush Traction Brush Traction is a manufacturer and maintainer of railway locomotives in Loughborough, England. It is a subsidiary of Wabtec. History Hughes's Locomotive & Tramway Engine Works Henry Hughes had been operating at the Falcon Works since t ...

could not build them at its own plant; however, upon their arrival in the UK, the machines were deemed to be unsuitable for use, as they suffered from poor construction standards, and had to be withdrawn and extensively rebuilt. (However, they were seen as being perfectly reasonable for use in Romania by the Romanian crews who tested them)."'The Locos that Came in From the Cold" ''

The Railway Magazine ''The Railway Magazine'' is a monthly British railway magazine, aimed at the railway enthusiast market, that has been published in London since July 1897. it was, for three years running, the railway magazine with the largest circulation in t ...

'' (December 2000/January 2001 issues) In 1955–1959, Electroputere produced the V54 tram, which was delivered to the cities of Bucharest, Timișoara and Oradea. Unmodified examples ran up to 1989, whilst the largest number of examples ran in Bucharest, serving as the backbone of the city's network in the 1960s (they were later modernized in 1976–1982, and ran up to June 2000). Aside from this, Electroputere modernized multiple V3A trams between 1997 and 2002, with the first three of them receiving Holec (Holland Electric) equipment. Between 1994 and 1996, Electroputere and FAUR modernized multiple

Astra IVA Astra IVA is a family of metro train used by Bucharest Metro, of which 504 cars (252 two-car sets) were built between 1976 and 1993 by Întreprinderea de Vagoane Arad (IVA) in Arad, Romania. History The prototype was made in 1976, with se ...

sets for operation on the M2 line of the Bucharest Metro, the project eventually failed and the blue IVA sets never entered service. The most important railway locomotives, as classed by the Romanian railway factory nomenclature were the LDE 2100, LE 5100 and LDE 3000/4000, which were mainly delivered to the Romanian Railways, and a few foreign customers. Apart from the latter, which were withdrawn in the mid-1990s and early-2000s due to their uneconomical nature and increased fuel consumption, the LDE 2100 and LE 5100 form the backbone of the Romanian Railways network.

Photo Gallery

File:Electroputere V54 on Pantelimon Avenue.jpg, 1954: The first major order for Electroputere occurs when the V54 is produced for the Bucharest tram network, entering service in January 1955. File:CFR DA 853 at Constanta.jpg, 1959: LDE 2100 locomotive (produced under licence from SLM, Sulzer, Oerlikon, BBC). File:ST43-214 (25096278918).jpg, 1965: Electroputere begins delivering its first export (diesel) locomotives to Poland (PKP ST43). File:Bușteni-train-station2008g.jpg, 1967: LE 5100 locomotive (produced under licence from ASEA and NOHAB). File:J26 034 Bw Požega, 461 013.jpg, 1971: First exports of electric locomotives begin, with the JŽ 461 locomotives being delivered to Yugoslavia, for use on the Belgrade-Bar rail line. File:China ND2.jpg, 1972: China becomes an important customer for Electroputere, when it orders 284 locomotives based on the LDE 2100 design, known as the ND2. File:CFR Calatori LE3400.jpg, 1973: Electroputere Craiova and UCM Reșita sign an agreement to produce the LE 3400, the local variant of the JŽ 441 produced by Rade Končar and MIN Niš. File:Adasdfafafa.jpg, 1975: Electroputere develops the LDE 3000 and LDE 4000 locomotives, using American-built ALCO engines built at UCM Reșita. Pictured here is a 1982-built LDE 4000 operating for the Greek Railways at Athens. File:Hugh llewelyn 56 006 (5555972314).jpg, 1976: In the most important order at that time, Electroputere delivers 30 LDE 3500 locomotives, known as the BR Class 56. File:Bucharest V3A tram 7.jpg, 1997: Along with FAUR, Electroputere is invited in the V3A modernization programme, modernizing 13 trams, 10 using home-made equipment.

References

External links