TCDD E4000 was the first

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 ...

used by the Turkish State Railways, TCDD. The three units, numbered E4001 - E4003 were built by Alsthom and

Jeumont Jeumont () is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It lies on the Belgian border and on the river Sambre, adjacent to the Belgian town Erquelinnes. It is part of the agglomeration (''unité urbaine'') of Maubeuge. Population E ...

in France. The units are currently disused.

History

In 1955 the first railway in Turkey was electrified, on the

commuter rail Commuter rail, or suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting commuters to a central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter towns. Generally commuter rail systems are con ...

from

Sirkeci Sirkeci () is a neighborhood in the Eminönü quarter of the Fatih district in Istanbul, Turkey. The neighborhood borders to the north the mouth of the Golden Horn, to the west the neighborhood of Bahçekapı, to the east the Topkapı Palace a ...

to Halkalı in

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

. In addition to delivery of 18

electric multiple unit An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a numbe ...

s, TCDD wanted to be able to use electrical engines instead of steam engines on long-haul trains on the last few kilometers into Istanbul. Because the line the locomotives were to serve on was flat and did not allow high speeds, the E4000 was a simple and conservative locomotive, utilizing a direct, single phase AC motor fed directly from the transformer. But even by 1957 the development of

rectifier A rectifier is an electrical device that converts alternating current (AC), which periodically reverses direction, to direct current (DC), which flows in only one direction. The reverse operation (converting DC to AC) is performed by an Power ...

s directly fed AC motors obsolete. The design of the locomotives are based on Paul Arzens of Alsthom, and resemble many of the concurrent locomotives produced by them.

References

External links

Trains of Turkey on E4000
{{TCDD stock E 4000 Bo-Bo locomotives 25 kV AC locomotives Alstom locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1955 Standard gauge locomotives of Turkey