The Sr1 is a class of

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 built for VR of Finland. These 25 kV locomotives were built in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

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 ...

between 1973 and 1985. Two additional locomotives of this class were built at the VR

Hyvinkää Hyvinkää (; sv, Hyvinge, ) is a city and municipality of Finland. It is located in the Uusimaa region, approximately north of the capital Helsinki. The city was chartered in 1960. The population of Hyvinkää is (). Its neighboring municipal ...

Machine Workshop in 1993 and 1995, number 3111 from spare parts and number 3112 from the original prototype locomotive (number 3000) that was never used by the VR. The official classification given by the manufacturer is VL70 or ES40. The nicknames for these locomotives are "''Siperian susi''" (Wolf of Siberia; in Finnish

slang Slang is vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in spoken conversation but avoided in formal writing. It also sometimes refers to the language generally exclusive to the members of particular in-gro ...

"susi" can also mean a poorly manufactured object, compare English "dog" or "lemon"), "''Kaalihäkki''" (Cabbage Cage) and "''Sähköryssä''" (Electric Russkie).

History

In 1970, Valtionrautatiet ordered 27 electric locomotives from Energomachexport, which were delivered between September 1973 and the end of the year 1975. 82 additional locomotives were ordered and delivered between 1973 and 1985. The first prototype locomotive, number 3000, was bought from the constructor in 1994 by VR, which rebuilt it into number 3112. The trains have been used in passenger and cargo transport on Finland's electrified rail network. A list of overall locomotives made is shown below:

Livery

The locomotives originally carried a dark red livery, with light yellow stripes around and below the cab windows. The stripes were later replaced with yellow warning panels (resembling stylised wings) below the cab windows. From the early 1990s onwards this livery was replaced by an off-white livery with red stripes. Nowadays the locomotives are refitted with a white-green livery to go with the current company colours. Sr1-3036.jpg, Sr1 3036 in its first livery at NEVZ Novocherkassk, freshly outshopped, circa 1976. Sr1 3046 at Oulu railway station 19860614.jpg, Sr1 3046 in its second livery at

Oulu Oulu ( , ; sv, Uleåborg ) is a city, municipality and a seaside resort of about 210,000 inhabitants in the region of North Ostrobothnia, Finland. It is the most populous city in northern Finland and the fifth most populous in the country after: ...

, 14 June 1986 Sr1 hauling freight train in Jarvenpaa in 1987 cropped.jpg, A Sr1 hauling a freight train in its second livery in 1987 IC2 934 at Pieksämäki.jpg, Sr1 3069 in a white-red VR livery I11 610 Bf Turku, Sr1 3084.jpg, Sr1 3084 in a white-green VR livery 14-08-11-tampere-RalfR-37.jpg, Sr1 3093, spotting a "transitional livery" with green headlight front stripe

Technical information

Electrical equipment for the locomotives was supplied by the Finnish company Oy Strömberg (later part of

ABB ABB Ltd. is a Swedish- Swiss multinational corporation headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland. The company was formed in 1988 when Sweden's Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget (ASEA) and Switzerland's Brown, Boveri & Cie merged to create ...

). Locomotives number 3098–3110 were rebuilt 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 allowing a higher maximum speed (160 km/h) in the 1990s (3111 and 3112 were originally built for this speed), but since 2003 they have been restored back to the original top speed due to the speed being raised at the expense of tractive effort (possibly the delivery of the faster Sr2 class also had an effect). The last Sr1 to be equipped with bogies allowing 160 km/h was number 3107. Sr1 kaksinveto yhteenkytkentä.jpg, Two Sr1 locomotives operating in multiple-unit train control Pantograph of Sr1.jpg, Pantograph of Sr1 Sr1 ohjaamo.jpg, Driving cab of Sr1

Incidents and accidents

Three Sr1 class locomotives have been damaged beyond repair and withdrawn from service: number 3048 in Jokela in 1996, number 3089 in Jyväskylä in 1998 and number 3101 i
Siuro in 2011
Five other locomotives have also been involved in accidents, but have been rebuilt or repaired afterwards.

Withdrawal and replacement

In December 2013 VR announced an order for 80 new electric locomotives to replace the Sr1 Class. The new locomotives, of the

Siemens Vectron The Vectron is a locomotive series made by Siemens Mobility, introduced at the 2010 InnoTrans trade fair in four prototype versions: diesel, multi-system, and both AC and DC electric power. The diesel version has been replaced in 2018 by a dua ...

design, will be built in Germany by

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad. The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', '' ...

. The new locomotives are scheduled to be delivered between 2017 and 2026, resulting in the withdrawal of the Sr1 class.http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/traction-rolling-stock/single-view/view/broad-gauge-vectron-arrives-in-finland.html Railway Gazette International, retrieved on 29 January 2016

References

Literature

External links

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Photographs of VR Sr1 locomotives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vr Class Sr1 Bo′Bo′ locomotives

Sr1 The Sr1 is a class of electric locomotives built for VR of Finland. These 25 kV locomotives were built in the Soviet Union at the Novocherkassk Electric Locomotive Factory between 1973 and 1985. Two additional locomotives of this class were b ...

25 kV AC locomotives Electric locomotives of Finland Railway locomotives introduced in 1973 5 ft gauge locomotives