The Soviet-made ET42 (also manufactured as NEWZ 112E) is PKP's (Polish National Railways) most powerful

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

electric freight locomotive. Due to its provenance, it is often referred to by its nickname of ''Rusek'' (Polish derogatory word for a native of Russia) or ''Czapajew'' (

Chapayev Vasily Ivanovich Chapayev or Chapaev (russian: link=no, Василий Иванович Чапаев; 5 September 1919) was a Russian soldier and Red Army commander during the Russian Civil War. Biography Chapayev was born into a poor peasan ...

) (Russian: Чапаев).

Description

The locomotive's construction is based on that of the Soviet

VL10 The VL10 (ru: ВЛ10) is an electric two-unit mainline DC freight locomotive used in the Soviet Union and is still operated today by the state owned Russian rail company RZhD, Ukrainian Railways and Georgian Railway. The initials ''VL'' are thos ...

and

VL11 The VL11 russian: ВЛ11 is an electric mainline DC freight and passenger locomotive, built in Georgia, used in Russia and Ukraine. The initials ''VL'' are those of Vladimir Lenin (ru: Владимир Ленин), after whom the class is named. ...

(Russian: ВЛ10 & ВЛ11, respectively) and is characterised by its straightforward design as well as ease of use and reliability. The ET42 was designed to be a dual section locomotive from the outset, as opposed to the remaining dual section locomotives operated by PKP, such as the

ET41 ET41 (also manufactured as HCP 203E) is the name for a Polish electric locomotive used by the Polish railway operator ('' PKP''). Three such locomotives were briefly rented to the Croatian Railways between 1995 and 1996 and were given the desig ...

or ET40. For this reason a "single version" of the ET42 doesn't exist; nor is it possible to modify one of the sections to run as an independent unit. Since there aren't any empty spaces left by surplus cabs, the locomotive is much shorter than other dual section locomotives built from single units. The ET42 is also equipped with facilities for heating carriages and can therefore be used for hauling passenger trains.

Operational history

Fifty ET42s were purchased between 1978 and 1982 and were all based at the

Zduńska Wola Karsznice Zduńska Wola Karsznice is one of the biggest rail junctions in Poland, located in central part of the country, within the borders of the town of Zduńska Wola (Łódź Voivodeship). It is a station along the Polish Coal Trunk-Line; before 1930 it ...

depot. They were all built at the

Novocherkassk Electric Locomotive Factory Novocherkassk Electric Locomotive Plant (NEVZ), established in 1936, is based in the Russian town of Novocherkassk, Rostov Region. It is now (2015) part of Transmashholding. NEVZ locomotives haul trains transporting 80% of all cargo on the electr ...

in the former Soviet town of

Novocherkassk Novocherkassk (russian: Новочерка́сск, lit. ''New Cherkassk'') is a city in Rostov Oblast, Russia, located near the confluence of the Tuzlov and Aksay Rivers, the latter a distributary of the Don River. Novocherkassk is best known as t ...

(Russian: Новочеркасск). The ET42's main role is hauling very heavy coal trains (up to 4,000 tonnes) along the routes leading from

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

to the ports of

Gdańsk Gdańsk ( , also ; ; csb, Gduńsk;Stefan Ramułt, ''Słownik języka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego'', Kraków 1893, Gdańsk 2003, ISBN 83-87408-64-6. , Johann Georg Theodor Grässe, ''Orbis latinus oder Verzeichniss der lateinischen Benen ...

and

Gdynia Gdynia ( ; ; german: Gdingen (currently), (1939–1945); csb, Gdiniô, , , ) is a city in northern Poland and a seaport on the Baltic Sea coast. With a population of 243,918, it is the List of cities in Poland, 12th-largest city in Poland and ...

. Four locomotives are no longer in PKP's inventory: ET42-003, ET42-033, ET42-043 and ET42-045 due to a rail accident. Now all locomotives are based in Zakład Taboru

Tarnowskie Góry Tarnowskie Góry (German: ''Tarnowitz''; szl, Tarnowske Gōry) is a town in Silesia, southern Poland, located in the Silesian Highlands near Katowice. On the south it borders the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union, a megalopolis, the greater Si ...

Refurbishment

PKP announced that in 2019, all ET42 locomotives will be refurbished to better meed modern PKP standards.

Description

Operational history

Refurbishment

See also