The

SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (; abbreviated as SNCF ; French for "National society of French railroads") is France's national state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the country's national rail traffi ...

Class CC 6500 is a class of

1.5 kV DC This is a list of the power supply systems that are, or have been, used for tramway and railway electrification systems. Note that the voltages are nominal and vary depending on load and distance from the substation. Many modern trams and trains ...

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. The CC 6500 was, together with the and diesel

CC 72000 CC, cc, or C-C may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters * C.C. (''Code Geass''), a character in the ''Code Geass'' anime series, pronounced "C-two" * C.C. Babcock, a character in the American sitcom ''The Nanny'' * Com ...

, the first generation of the '

Nez Cassé The Nez Cassé series of locomotives is a large family of electric and diesel locomotives intended primarily for fast passenger service on the French SNCF railway system. Produced by Alsthom for use under multiple electrification networks and un-el ...

' family of locomotives and designed for hauling express trains with speeds up to but also used for heavy freight trains. Among the trains they hauled in their first years of service were the SNCF flagship train ''

Le Mistral ''Le Mistral'', or the ''Mistral'', was an express train between Paris and Nice in France. Introduced in 1950, it was operated by the ''Société Nationale des Chemins de fer français'' ("French National Railway Corporation") ( SNCF), and was r ...

'' and

Trans Europ Express The Trans Europ Express, or Trans-Europe Express (TEE), was an international first-class railway service in western and central Europe that was founded in 1957 and ceased in 1995. At the height of its operations, in 1974, the TEE network compri ...

trains ''

Aquitaine Aquitaine ( , , ; oc, Aquitània ; eu, Akitania; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Aguiéne''), archaic Guyenne or Guienne ( oc, Guiana), is a historical region of southwestern France and a former administrative region of the country. Since 1 January ...

'', '' Le Capitole'' and '' l'Étendard''. Nock, O.S. (1978). "The Aquitaine: pioneer of electric power", in ''World Atlas of Railways'', pp. 120–121. New York: Mayflower Books (original publisher: Artists House, London, UK). .

Technical details

The locomotives had 3-axle

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 with each set of 3 axles coupled by gears. Speed regulation was by

rheostat A potentiometer is a three-terminal resistor with a sliding or rotating contact that forms an adjustable voltage divider. If only two terminals are used, one end and the wiper, it acts as a variable resistor or rheostat. The measuring instrume ...

s and

series-parallel control A brushed DC electric motor is an internally Commutator (electric), commutated electric motor designed to be run from a direct current power source and utilizing an brush (electric), electric brush for electrical contact, contact. Brushed motors w ...

. The motors had double armatures so there were four "demi-motors" which allowed three motor groupings: full series, series-parallel and full parallel. The power controller had 28 steps. The second batch of CC 6500 locomotives were equipped with third-rail electrical pickups for use on the steeply-graded

Maurienne Maurienne ( frp, Môrièna) is one of the provinces of France, provinces of Savoy, corresponding to the arrondissement of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne in France. It is also the original name of the capital of the province, now Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne. ...

line in the Alps, which were removed when the line was converted to overhead catenary supplies.

Production

Between 1969 and 1976 a total of 74 were built, with the last of this class taken out of service in 2007. Four more were built as dual-system

25 kV AC Railway electrification systems using alternating current (AC) at are used worldwide, especially for high-speed rail. It is usually supplied at the standard utility frequency (typically 50 or 60Hz), which simplifies traction substations. The d ...

locomotives, and designated Class CC 21000. These were reconfigured for use as DC only locomotives between 1995 and 1996 , taking the total of CC 6500 locomotives to 78.

Names

Around half the class received names. Most are named after French towns, except CC 6572, which was named to commemorate the World War II railway workers resistance group,

Résistance-Fer ''Résistance-Fer'' ( French; Railway-Resistance, or "Iron-Resistance") was a French Resistance group against the German occupation of France during the Second World War. This specific movement was essentially composed of French railway workers f ...

Technical details

Production

Names

References

Further reading