Class E 499.1

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 were constructed and built by

Škoda Works The Škoda Works ( cs, Škodovy závody, ) was one of the largest European industrial conglomerates of the 20th century, founded by Czech engineer Emil Škoda in 1859 in Plzeň, then in the Kingdom of Bohemia, Austrian Empire. It is the predece ...

Plzeň Plzeň (; German and English: Pilsen, in German ) is a city in the Czech Republic. About west of Prague in western Bohemia, it is the Statutory city (Czech Republic), fourth most populous city in the Czech Republic with about 169,000 inhabita ...

for use in

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

by the

ČSD Czechoslovak State Railways (''Československé státní dráhy'' in Czech or ''Československé štátne dráhy'' in Slovak, often abbreviated to ČSD) was the state-owned railway company of Czechoslovakia. The company was founded in 1918 a ...

. They were also used outside Czechoslovakia in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

as class EP05 and 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 ...

as ЧС3 ( ChS3). In

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

, licence built copies were used (100 series), and the ubiquitous

Red Flag 1-class locomotive The Red Flag 1 ( ko, 붉은기1, ''Pulg'ŭn'gi''-1) and Red Flag 2 (붉은기2, ''Pulg'ŭn'gi''-2) class locomotives are multi-purpose electric locomotives built by the Kim Jong Thae Electric Locomotive Complex and operated by the North Korean ...

s were derived from this design. After the

fall of the iron curtain The Revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, was a revolutionary wave that resulted in the end of most communist states in the world. Sometimes this revolutionary wave is also called the Fall of Nations or the Autumn of Natio ...

and consequent upheavals in railway operations they remain in use with a number of railways. Still in the 1980s ČSD locomotives were renumbered to the class 141. After dividing Czechoslovakia in 1993 all locos of this class have remained in Czech republic.

History

The locomotive was produced in the years 1957-1960 in three types. ''20E₁'', the prototype, different from serial production, ''30E₁'' and ''30E₂''. 61 engines were built in those series. The prototype (E499.101) came into service on February 29, 1959. Most of locomotives stationed in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

, but some of them were sent to

Ústí nad Labem Ústí nad Labem (, , ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 92,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of its eponymous region and district. It is a major industrial centre and, besides being an active river port, is an important railway ju ...

and

Česká Třebová Česká Třebová (; german: Böhmisch Trübau) is a town in Ústí nad Orlicí District in the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 15,000 inhabitants. The town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument ...

. Currently the whole series is being systematically withdrawn with last units used in

, Olomouc and

Technical data

Class E499.1

s are used to pull both passenger and freight trains. They have driving cabs on either end of the box. This engine was not suited for multiple steering and shunting purposes. On a straight, horizontal track it could pull 600 t. passenger trains with the speed of up to 120 km/h and 1000 t. freight trains with the speed of 80 km/h.

Service in other countries

Poland

EU05

In need of modern

electric locomotives 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 t ...

for passenger trains, and unable to get timely delivery of EU06 locomotives from

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

bought 30 locomotives Type 44E from its southern neighbours. In 1961 it was the most modern locomotive running on

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

rail tracks. EU05 locomotives pulled fast passenger trains and were based in Warszawa Odolany and later in Warszawa Olszynka Grochowska depots. Those locomotives serviced chiefly connections from

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

Poznań Poznań () is a city on the River Warta in west-central Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business centre, and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John ...

and

Katowice Katowice ( , , ; szl, Katowicy; german: Kattowitz, yi, קאַטעוויץ, Kattevitz) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Upper Silesian metropolitan area. It is the 11th most popul ...

EP05

In 1969 PKP started testing several changes to enable EU05 locomotives to achieve speeds up to 160 km/h. It appeared to be possible thanks to changing the transmission and as a result by 1977 almost all locomotives had been rebuilt to EP05 class, except for locomotives 09, 12 and 19 which had been scrapped earlier. To distinguish the new series from its predecessor, the color scheme was changed from two-tone green to orange.

Present day

There are two units of EU05/EP05 left in service, which are in fact EP05-22 engine repainted in 2003. It serves as an exhibit in

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

. And EP05-23 which was obtained by PKP Intercity and repainted into orange livery in 2017. EP05-23 is in planned service as an active exhibit

Soviet Union and Russia

ЧС3 ( ChS3)

In 1960 and 1961 87 units of similar type 29E were built for the

railways. They were suited to run on the

broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union (CIS ...

rails and received ЧС3 ( ChS3) designation. Several units of this locomotive are still in use within Russian Railways pulling mostly passenger trains. In

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

ЧС3 are very often used in pairs.

North Korea

After buying a number of Czechoslovak-built Škoda Type 22E₂ type locomotives to expand its electric locomotive fleet, the

Korean State Railway The Korean State Railway (), commonly called the State Rail () is the operating arm of the Ministry of Railways of North Korea and has its headquarters at P'yŏngyang. The current Minister of Railways is Chang Jun Song. History 1945–195 ...

obtained a licence, including technology transfer, to produce the Type 30E₂. Several of Type 30E₂ were built by the

Kim Chong-t'ae Electric Locomotive Works The Kim Chong-t'ae Electric Locomotive Works () in P'yŏngyang is North Korea's largest manufacturer of railway equipment. Established in November 1945 in Sŏsŏng-guyŏk, P'yŏngyang near the P'yŏngyang Railway University and the Korean Stat ...

to gain experience with the design in preparation for the production of the Red Flag 1 class, whose design was based on that of the Type 30E₂. Although the total number of North Korean-built Type 30E₂, which were numbered in the 100 series, is unknown, at least one (number 114) is still operational.

Nicknames

* Czech in

- from nation of origin * Piątka (Eng. ''The Five'') in

- from locos number * Bobina in the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

- from wheel arrangement Bo'Bo'

References

Technical data and history of EU05 locomotives
URL accessed on June 7, 2007.

URL accessed on June 7, 2007. {{DEFAULTSORT:Csd Class E 499.1 3000 V DC locomotives Škoda locomotives Bo′Bo′ locomotives Electric locomotives of Czechoslovakia Electric locomotives of the Czech Republic Railway locomotives introduced in 1957 Polish State Railways electric locomotives