The
SNCF class BB 15000 is a class of 25 kV 50 Hz
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 g ...
s built by
Alstom and MTE between 1971 and 1978. Initially 65 locomotives strong, the class was widely deployed on the whole French 25 kV network before being replaced by TGV trains when the
LGV Est
The Ligne à Grande Vitesse Est européenne (East European High Speed Line), typically shortened to LGV Est, is a French high-speed rail line that connects Vaires-sur-Marne (near Paris) and Vendenheim (near Strasbourg). The line halved the ...
went into service in 2007.
History
In the mid-1960s, SNCF sought a new type of dual-current electric locomotives. As thyristor technology advanced rapidly, SNCF decided to adopt the new technology for a new series of locomotives, later known as the ''
Nez Cassés'' (Broken Noses, due to their cab styling by
Paul Arzens
Paul Arzens (28 August 1903 – 2 February 1990) was a French industrial designer of railway locomotives and motor cars.
Arzens was born in Paris, at an address along the on the northern side of the city. As a young man he studied at the ...
) or BB 4400 kW. Given that the need for pure AC-locomotives was greatest, SNCF placed an initial order of five locomotives in 1968. In 1969 a second order of 10 locomotives followed, in 1970 a third order was made for another 10 locomotives. The remaining 40 locomotives were ordered in 1973.
The first five locomotives were delivered in 1971 in the overall-green "Maurienne" livery. The rest followed between 1973 and 1978, painted in the striking TEE-Arzens livery. Initially meant to support
BB16000 locomotives on eastern and northeastern lines, which could not keep up with the timetables anymore after top speed on some sections was raised to , the BB15000 series would become the most important locomotives on the northern and northeast network.
Career
1970s-2007
![BB 15001 at Strasbourg](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/BB_15001_at_Strasbourg.jpg)
After being tested on the
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
–
Épernay
Épernay () is a commune in the Marne department of northern France, 130 km north-east of Paris on the mainline railway to Strasbourg. The town sits on the left bank of the Marne at the extremity of the Cubry valley which crosses it.
Ép ...
main line in 1971, they entered revenue service from 1972. They ran mostly on the northeastern network where they hauled nearly all the principle passenger trains, including the national
TEE trains ''
Kléber'' and ''
Stanislas''. Some services extended to the northwest, with workings to Lille, Calais and the Belgian border at Quévy.
Services remained stable throughout the 1970s and 1980s, but the opening of the Ligne-a-Grande-Vitesse Nord in 1993 started a cascade of assignments in which the BB 15000's lost services to either dual-voltage
BB 26000 locomotives or to
TGV
The TGV (french: Train à Grande Vitesse, "high-speed train"; previously french: TurboTrain à Grande Vitesse, label=none) is France's intercity high-speed rail service, operated by SNCF. SNCF worked on a high-speed rail network from 1966 to 19 ...
trains. Yet BB 15000 locomotives remained strong in the northeast and hauled
Corail Téoz services between Paris and Strasbourg from 2003 until mid-2005, when half of the loco-hauled services were converted to TGV trainsets, albeit still running on the classic line. In mid-2006 the remainder were also converted into TGV services, leaving only some TER trains for the Lorraine and Alsace regions, and the
EuroCity trains between Basel and Brussels (loco change at Luxemburg) or Paris and Frankfurt (loco change at Strasbourg).
The partial opening of the
LGV Est
The Ligne à Grande Vitesse Est européenne (East European High Speed Line), typically shortened to LGV Est, is a French high-speed rail line that connects Vaires-sur-Marne (near Paris) and Vendenheim (near Strasbourg). The line halved the ...
in June 2007 meant the end of classic locomotive-hauled Intercity trains between Paris and the northeastern regions, with BB 15000 locomotives losing a great deal of importance there.
2007-present
Although the end of locomotive-hauled Intercity trains in the northeast marked a downgrading of duties, it did not result in the withdrawal of the class.
The remaining 60 locomotives are divided over the following three sectors:
* Twelve locomotives were allocated to SNCF-VFE and worked Basel-Luxembourg
EuroCity services, as well as
DB AutoZug's night train from Paris-Nord to the Belgian border. These locomotives are fitted with the Memor II+ safety system which enables them to operate in Luxembourg. These locomotives are numbered in the 115000 series. This Basel-Luxembourg EuroCity service ended during the summer of 2016 and the locomotives assigned to it were reassigned at that time.
* Twenty-eight locomotives are allocated to SNCF-CIC (Corail Intercité) and are working medium to long distance regional services between Paris and Amiens/Maubeuge on the one end, and Paris-Caen/Deauville/Le Havre on the other end. Twelve locomotives of this sub-series, called BB215000R (from "Réversible"), are fitted with MUX which enables them to work in push-pull with the
Corail B6Dux driving trailers and will be replacing
BB216000 locomotives there. This sub-series is numbered in the 215000 series.
* Twenty locomotives are allocated to SNCF-TER Champagne-Ardennes, Haute-Normandie and Picardie, working fast TER services and replacing the remaining
BB516000 locomotives. Fifteen locomotives of this sub-series, called BB515000R, are fitted with MUX in able to operate in push-pull mode with V2N driving trailers on Paris-Rouen (Haute-Normandie) and Paris-Amiens (Picardie) and will be replacing
BB516100 locomotives there. This sub-series is numbered in the 515000 series.
Technology
The locomotive's body shell is shared with the other members of the "Nez Cassé" (broken nose) family (BB7200, BB22200) and is of the monocoque type.
The cab layout is shared with the BB7200 and BB22200 series and has a great deal in common with cabs of other SNCF locomotives of the 1960s. This class was also the first to introduce the VI ("Vitesse Imposée")
cruise control
Cruise control (also known as speed control, cruise command, autocruise, or tempomat) is a system that automatically controls the speed of a motor vehicle. The system is a servomechanism that takes over the throttle of the car to maintain a s ...
system which is now standard on all SNCF locomotives delivered after 1971.
The electrical equipment consists of a single pantograph (type AM18U) which collects 25 kV from the catenary. Power is passed through a transformer which lowers the voltage to about 1500 V AC and a bridge rectifier controlled by thyristors rectify it into DC, which is then fed into the traction motors.
Brake equipment consists of pneumatic, electro-pneumatic, regenerative and dynamic brakes. The
monomotor bogie A monomotor bogie (french: bogie monomoteur) is a form of traction bogie (railway), bogie used for an electric locomotive or diesel-electric locomotive. It is distinguished by having a single traction motor on each bogie.
Development
The first el ...
s were derived from the Y217 bogies of
BB67400 locomotives and have primary (coil springs) and secondary ("sandwich" blocs) suspension.
The reliability of the locomotives is outstanding, as some locomotives have already passed the 10,000,000 km mark and have less than 2 defects per million kilometres, a number unrivaled by other similar European locomotives.
Liveries
BB15000 locomotives have carried at least six different liveries:
* The green "Maurienne" livery (so called because CC6500 locomotives also wore this livery and operated in the French Maurienne region) was worn by locomotives BB15001 - BB15005 between their delivery and 1982, when they were repainted into the TEE-Arzens livery.
* The TEE-Arzens livery was worn by locomotives from number BB15006 onwards by delivery; the first five green locomotives were also repainted in this livery in 1982. There were two variants of this livery: the original livery which consisted of silver, red and orange, and the modified one where the silver was replaced with opaque gray. Nowadays a number of locomotives still wear the original livery, the others having another one listed below.
* The "béton" (lit. ''concrete'') livery, which was the standard livery of BB7200 and BB22200 locomotives, was tested on locomotives BB15034 and BB15040 in 1986-87 but was considered a failure as the locomotives got dirty too fast.
* The "Multiservices" livery (former known as Corail+, as on the coaches) was introduced in 1995 on BB15016 and consisted of two shades of gray, silver and red. Nearly half of the class was painted in this livery by 2002, when the new "en voyage..." livery was introduced on the series.
* The "en voyage..." livery was the latest livery of the class. Introduced on BB15063 in 2002. It consists of silver, purple on cab side 1 and cyan on cab side 2, and the "en voyage..." sticker with stylish motifs. The rights to use this design have expired and all locos still wearing it will be repainted in something else upon their next overhaul.
* A number of BB 15000 locos have been repainted in TER liveries of the regions where they run.
The experimental nature of the class
BB15000 locomotives were popular locomotives for conducting various experiments. A small overview:
* In 1972, BB15001 was used for testing a potential speed raise to on the Paris-Strasbourg main line (sections Épernay - Châlons-sur-Marne, Vitry-le-François - Bar-le-Duc and Lunéville - Sarrebourg). While the locomotive had no technical difficulties at those speeds, the project was not continued due to the enormous cost of the infrastructure works which had to be undertaken.
* In 1973, BB15008 was used to test communication interferences on the now defunct Überherrn-Wadgassen line in Germany, exceptionally fed with 25 kV at that time.
* In 1974, BB15007 was taken out of service and transformed into BB7003, the prototype for the BB7200 locomotives. See
SNCF Class BB 7003
The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (; abbreviated as SNCF ; French for "National society of French railroads") is France's national State-owned enterprise, state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the Rail tra ...
.
* In 1976, BB15015 was tested on the Marseille-Nice main line in order to prepare the line for the arrival of the similar, but bicurrent BB22200 locomotives.
* In 1977, BB15041 operated special demonstration rides between Épernay and Châlons-sur-Marne at for Amtrak executives in order to convince them to buy a locomotive based on this design rather than the Swedish-based AEM-7. Eventually six-axle locomotive
CC21003 was rebuilt to US standards and sent to the United States instead.
* In 1978, BB15012 received the lower-geared bogies of locomotive BB22201 and was tested on various lines with heavy freight trains with weights up to , in order to test the performances against BB22000 locomotives.
* In 1979, BB15063 was equipped with the bogies of BB7248 which had a modified secondary suspension for operating in the Middle East. The
Iranian Railways were interested in purchasing a locomotive class based on the BB15000 design. BB15063 was tested with heavy trains up to on various 25 kV lines. BB15063 retains these special bogies even today.
* In 1979 BB15030 was used for stability tests in the Marne valley region at speeds up to .
* In 1980, a BB15000 locomotive pulled middle cars of a TGV Sud-Est train set at high speeds in preparation of their services on the LGV Sud-Est.
* Later that year, BB15008 was sent to the Rail Tec Arsenal climatic test chamber in Vienna for thermal tests up to .
* In 1981, locomotives BB15049 and BB15059 were used for testing the behaviour of the AM18U pantographs at high speeds in tunnels, related to use in the then not yet built Channel Tunnel.
* In 1982, BB15055 received synchronous motors. Later that year it was renumbered BB10004. See
SNCF Class BB 10004.
* Also in 1982, BB15056 received a bimotor bogie with motors similar to the ones used in TGV Sud-Est sets.
* In 1983, BB7003 (original BB15007) was transformed into BB10003, a test-bed locomotive for asynchronous motors. See
SNCF Class BB 10003
The locomotive SNCF BB 10003 was an experimental prototype locomotive converted from a SNCF BB 15000 electric locomotive and used to develop the use of asynchronous induction traction motors.
History
The locomotive BB 10003 was created from an e ...
.
* In 1989, BB10004 was restored to its original configuration and taken back into service with its original number, BB15055.
* In 1997, BB10003 was restored to its original configuration and taken back into service with its original number, BB15007.
Fleet list
Many of the class were named after French communes, towns and cities.
Models
* This locomotive was reproduced in
H0 scale by
Jouef
Jouef is a French brand and former manufacturing company specialized in scale model railroads. The brand name is currently owned by Hornby.
Apart from model railroads, the company also produced model cars and slot cars.
History
Manufacturer G ...
,
Lima
Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of the central coastal part of ...
,
LS Models LS may refer to:
Businesses
* LS Group, a Korean company
* Jet2.com (IATA code: LS), a British airline
Latin
* Lewis and Short (abbr. "L&S"), authors of the 1879 work ''A Latin Dictionary''
* Lectori Salutem (L.S.), Latin for 'Greetings Re ...
,
Märklin
Gebr. Märklin & Cie. GmbH or Märklin (MÄRKLIN or MAERKLIN in capital letters) is a German toy company. The company was founded in 1859 and is based at Göppingen in Baden-Württemberg. Although it originally specialised in doll house accesso ...
and
Roco
Roco, based in Salzburg, Austria, is a manufacturer of model railway equipment.
History
The company was founded in 1960 by Ing. Heinz Rössler and started with a plastic Minitanks series of military vehicles. After export to the USA became succ ...
.
* This locomotive was reproduced in
N scale
N scale is a popular model railway scale. Depending upon the manufacturer (or country), the scale ranges from 1:148 to 1:160. In all cases, the ''gauge'' (the distance between the rails) is . The term N ''gauge'' refers to the track dimensions, ...
by
Fleischmann and
Minitrix
Trix is a German company that originally made Trix metal construction sets. One of its co-founders was Stephan Bing, the son of the pioneer toy-maker industrialist Ignaz Bing. In 1935 the company began producing the electrically powered model ...
.
See also
*
CP Class 2600
Série 2600, nicknamed ''Nez-Cassée'' ''("broken nose")'', is a type of 25 kV 50 Hz electric locomotive currently used by Portuguese Railways. They are closely based on the SNCF Class BB 15000 locomotive design. The locomotives were styled ...
- similar locomotives built for the
Portuguese Railways in 1974, with a
track gauge
In rail transport, track gauge (in American English, alternatively track gage) is the distance between the two rails of a railway track. All vehicles on a rail network must have wheelsets that are compatible with the track gauge. Since many ...
*
Korail Class 8000 - similar locomotives for
Korail
*
SŽ series 363
The SŽ series 363 is a class of 3 kV DC electric locomotives operated by Slovenian Railways ( sl, Slovenske železnice, SŽ).
They were built in 1975-1977 by the French manufacturer Alsthom. They have a typically Alsthom C′C′ wheel arrangem ...
- similar locomotives for
Slovenske Železnice
*
NS Class 1600
The NS Class 1600 is a type of B′B′ electric locomotive built by Alstom between 1980 and 1983 based on the SNCF Class BB 7200, and in use by the Dutch Railways since 1981. They were styled by the French industrial designer Paul Arzens.
...
- similar locomotives for
Nederlandse Spoorwegen
Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS; ; en, "Dutch Railways") is the principal passenger railway operator in the Netherlands. It is a Dutch state-owned company founded in 1938. The Dutch rail network is one of the busiest in the European Union, and t ...
*
FEPASA Class 2200 - similar locomotives for
Ferrovia Paulista S/A https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrovia Paulista S/A
References
* ''Les BB 15000, 35 ans de services intensifs de l'Alsace aux Flandres''. In: ''Rail Passion Hors-Serie: "Génération 4400 kW"''. July 2006. Éditions La Vie Du Rail, , p. 6-29.
External links
Portrait of the BB15000 locomotives on Ferrovia(French)
SNCF BB 15000 profile on TrainspoSpec Sheet; French
{{Nez Cassé locomotives
Alstom locomotives
Standard gauge electric locomotives of France
15000
B-B locomotives
25 kV AC locomotives
Railway locomotives introduced in 1971
Passenger locomotives