The MÁV Class V63 "Gigant" series (since 2011 H-START Class 630) were made by

Ganz The Ganz Works or Ganz ( or , ''Ganz companies'', formerly ''Ganz and Partner Iron Mill and Machine Factory'') was a group of companies operating between 1845 and 1949 in Budapest, Hungary. It was named after Ábrahám Ganz, the founder and the ...

for

MÁV Hungarian State Railways ( hu, Magyar Államvasutak, MÁV) is the Hungarian national railway company, with divisions "MÁV START Zrt." (passenger transport), "MÁV-Gépészet Zrt." (maintenance), "MÁV-Trakció Zrt." and "MÁV Cargo Zrt" (freig ...

to haul heavy freight and passenger trains with high

tractive effort As used in mechanical engineering, the term tractive force can either refer to the total traction a vehicle exerts on a surface, or the amount of the total traction that is parallel to the direction of motion. In railway engineering, the term tr ...

. This is the most powerful type of locomotive that have been made in Hungary.

History

The first and second prototype units were delivered in 1975 (V63 001, V63 002). Both of these prototype units used electrical equipment from Western Europe while the later units used exclusively Hungarian made equipment. The null-series (V63 003, V63 004, V63 005, V63 006, V63 007) were delivered between 1980 and 1981. From 1984 the new units have been equipped with new

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 with better running performance licensed from

Krupp The Krupp family (see pronunciation), a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, is notable for its production of steel, artillery, ammunition and other armaments. The family business, known as Friedrich Krupp AG (Friedrich Krup ...

. In total, 56 units have been delivered to MÁV. Of these, 51 units are still running. In 1992 10 units got a modified transmission to be able to reach a speed of . In 2006, the V63 048, V63 138, V63 151 were equipped with ETCS, for testing purposes.

References

External links

V63 profile and high quality pictures on Trainspo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mav Class V63 Electric locomotives of Hungary 25 kV AC locomotives Co′Co′ locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1975 Standard gauge locomotives of Hungary Co′Co′ electric locomotives of Europe