The Class ED500 was a single
Bo-Bo
B-B and Bo-Bo are the Association of American Railroads (AAR) and British classifications of wheel arrangement for railway locomotives with four axles in two individual bogies. They are equivalent to the B′B′ and Bo′Bo′ classifications in ...
wheel arrangement dual voltage
AC/
DC electric locomotive built experimentally by
Hitachi
() is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is the parent company of the Hitachi Group (''Hitachi Gurūpu'') and had formed part of the Ni ...
in Japan in 1992.
The design was derived from the DC
Bo-Bo-Bo
A Bo-Bo-Bo or Bo′Bo′Bo′ (UIC classification) is a locomotive with three independent two-axle bogies with all axles powered by separate traction motors. In the AAR system, this is simplified to B-B-B.
The Bo-Bo-Bo configuration is of ...
wheel arrangement
Class EF200
The was a Bo-Bo-Bo wheel arrangement DC electric locomotive operated by JR Freight on freight services in Japan from 1992 until its retirement on 28 March 2019.
Overview
The Class EF200 was developed to replace Class EF66 electric locomotives ...
also built by Hitachi, and was intended to replace
Class ED75
The is a Bo-Bo wheel arrangement AC electric locomotive type operated on passenger and freight services in Japan since 1963. A total of 302 locomotives were built by Hitachi, Mitsubishi, and Toshiba between 1963 and 1976. , just five locomotiv ...
locomotives on
Tohoku Main Line freight services. The locomotive was loaned to
JR Freight for testing until 1994,
but the design was not selected for full production due to problems with restarting a single Bo-Bo wheel arrangement locomotive on the 25‰, 2.5%,
gradients of the Tohoku Main Line and in the
Seikan Tunnel
The Seikan Tunnel ( ja, 青函トンネル, or , ), is a dual-gauge railway tunnel in Japan, with a portion under the seabed of the Tsugaru Strait, which separates Aomori Prefecture on the main Japanese island of Honshu from the northern isla ...
.
The
Class EH500
The is a Bo′Bo′+Bo′Bo′ wheel arrangement multi-system AC/ DC two-unit electric locomotive type operated by JR Freight in Japan since 1997.
Operations
The locomotives are built at the Toshiba factory in Fuchū, Tokyo. Initially, they w ...
articulated Bo-Bo+Bo-Bo design was ultimately chosen instead.
External appearance
Visually resembling the EF200 locomotives, the ED500 was finished in all-over black with red cab doors.
Classification
The ED500 classification for this locomotive type is explained below. As with previous locomotive designs, the prototype was numbered ED500-901.
* E: Electric locomotive
* D: Four driving axles
* 500: AC/DC locomotive with AC motors
References
{{Jrfloco
1500 V DC locomotives
20 kV AC locomotives
Electric locomotives of Japan
Bo-Bo locomotives
1067 mm gauge locomotives of Japan
Railway locomotives introduced in 1992
Individual locomotives of Japan
Multi-system locomotives