NSB Di 8
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The NSB Di 8 is a class of
diesel-electric locomotive A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving wheels ...
s built by
Maschinenbau Kiel Maschinenbau Kiel GmbH designed, manufactured and marketed marine diesel engines, diesel locomotives and tracked vehicles under the MaK brand name. The three primary operating divisions of Maschinenbau Kiel GmbH were sold to different companies ...
(MaK), while it was part of
Siemens Schienenfahrzeugtechnik 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'', ''E ...
, for the
Norwegian State Railways Vygruppen, branded as Vy, is a government-owned railway company which operates most passenger train services and many bus services in Norway. The company is owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Transport. Its sub-brands include Vy Buss coach s ...
(NSB). The locomotives are equipped with a Caterpillar 3516 DI-TA
prime mover Prime mover may refer to: Philosophy *Unmoved mover, a concept in Aristotle's writings Engineering * Prime mover (engine), motor, a machine that converts various other forms of energy (chemical, electrical, fluid pressure/flow, etc) into energy ...
, which provides a power output of and a starting tractive effort of . Twenty locomotives were delivered in 1996, largely based on MaK's previous production series, the Dutch
NS Class 6400 The NS Class 6400 is a type of 4 axle diesel-electric freight locomotive. 120 were built by MaK and ABB between 1988 and 1994 for Nederlandse Spoorwegen. Design and description The locomotives were the result of a contract won by MaK and Brow ...
and German DE 1002, although receiving some upgrades to the specifications. NSB took delivery of the class to replace the aging Di 3, and the units have been used on freight trains on un-electrified lines, including the
Nordland Line The Nordland Line ( no, Nordlandsbanen, ) is a railway line between Trondheim and Bodø, Norway. It is the longest in Norway and lacks electrification. The route runs through the counties of Trøndelag (formerly Sør-Trøndelag and Nord-Trøndel ...
and the
Røros Line The Røros Line ( no, Rørosbanen) is a railway line which runs through the districts of Hedmarken, Østerdalen and Gauldalen in Innlandet and Trøndelag, Norway. The line branches off from the Dovre Line at Hamar Station and runs a more easterl ...
. They were transferred to
CargoNet CargoNet AS is the primary operator of freight trains on the Norwegian railway system. It was formed as NSB Gods after NSB (now Vy) fissioned into a passenger and a freight company. NSB Gods changed its name to CargoNet at the beginning of 200 ...
in 2002, when NSB's cargo division was demerged. Ten units were sold to
GB Railfreight GB Railfreight (GBRf) is a rail freight company in the United Kingdom. As of 2022, it is owned by the global investment company Infracapital. GB Railfreight was established in April 1999 as the rail freight operating subsidiary of the train o ...
in 2011 and are used at the Scunthorpe Steel works in Scunthorpe, United Kingdom.


History

During the late 1980s, the Norwegian State Railways sought a new locomotive type to replace its aging fleet of Di 3 diesel-electric locomotives, which made up the back-bone of the dieselized operations. The new locomotives were planned for use as freight and passenger trains on the Nordland Line, and to a lesser extent on the Røros Line.Næss: 138 In 1980, NSB had taken delivery of five Di 4 from
Henschel Henschel & Son (german: Henschel und Sohn) was a German company, located in Kassel, best known during the 20th century as a maker of transportation equipment, including locomotives, trucks, buses and trolleybuses, and armoured fighting v ...
. Originally there were plans to order additional Di 4 units, but this was discarded and instead a new class was pursued,Næss: 100 as NSB wanted similar, but slightly more modern, locomotives. A MaK-built DB Class 240 locomotive was test-run in Norway during 1990. On 23 November 1992, NSB's board decided to order ten similar units, later expanded to twelve, which would primarily be used in passenger trains. During the procurement process, NSB started to pursue the smaller locomotives for freight trains, and turned to MaK to investigate their smaller locomotives. NSB's need for hauling power was dire enough that the company leased two locomotives of two classes of diesel-electric locomotives, the
SJ T44 T44 is a Swedish diesel-electric locomotive built by Nydqvist & Holm (NOHAB) and Kalmar Verkstad (KVAB) in 123 units between 1968 and 1987. It was the successor of T43, and used both for hauling and shunting. It is the most common diesel locom ...
from the
Swedish State Railways The Swedish State Railways ( sv, Statens Järnvägar) or SJ, originally the Royal Railway Board ( sv, Kungl. Järnvägsstyrelsen), was the former government agency responsible for operating the state-owned railways in Sweden. It was created i ...
and the MaK-built NS 6400 from
Nederlandse Spoorwegen Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS; ; en, "Dutch Railways") is the principal passenger railway operator in the Netherlands. It is a Dutch state-owned company founded in 1938. The Dutch rail network is one of the busiest in the European Union, and t ...
. The NS 6400 was built through a cooperation between MaK and
Brown, Boveri & Cie Brown, Boveri & Cie. (Brown, Boveri & Company; BBC) was a Swiss group of electrical engineering companies. It was founded in Zürich, in 1891 by Charles Eugene Lancelot Brown and Walter Boveri who worked at the Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon. In 1 ...
in
Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's ...
, with 120 units having been built between 1988 and 1992. It was again based on the DE 1002, which had been built in twenty-four copies for the Häfen und Güterverkehr Köln 1982 and 1993. Another variant of the DE 1002 and NS 6400 is the
Eurotunnel Class 0001 The Eurotunnel Class 0001 Bo-Bo diesel-electric locomotives were built by Maschinenbau Kiel (manufacturers designation DE 1004) between 1991 and 1992. They are very similar to the NS 6400 Class. When operating in the United Kingdom, the locomo ...
, built in 1991. The Di 8 was technically similar, although slightly larger and more powerful, than the Dutch and German variants. Delivery of both the Di 6 and 8 commenced in 1996. The first Di 8 was delivered on 8 June 1996 and the last on 10 June 1997. NSB hoped that the combined 32 locos would be sufficient to replace all the Di 3s. However, the Di 8s were at first put into use on freight trains in
Eastern Norway Eastern Norway ( nb, Østlandet, nn, Austlandet) is the geographical region of the south-eastern part of Norway. It consists of the counties Vestfold og Telemark, Viken, Oslo and Innlandet. Eastern Norway is by far the most populous region ...
, largely running on electrified lines and thus not replacing the Di 3. Unlike their larger counterparts, which were unsuitable for service and returned to the manufacturer, the Di 8 proved a sufficiently reliable to remain in operation. The Di 8s were gradually introduced on the Nordland Line and
Meråker Line The Meråker Line ( no, Meråkerbanen) is a railway line which runs through the district and valley of Stjørdalen in Trøndelag county, Norway. The line branches off from the Nordland Line at Hell Station and runs eastwards to the Norway–Swe ...
to replace the Di 3 on freight trains. The Di 8 operated in pairs, which proved to be an optimal power ratio and driving times on the Nordland Line. On the other hand, the locomotives had high operating costs, in part because of the twin configuration, and proved less reliable than NSB had hoped. No. 714 was plagued with operational problems because of errors in a generator. Delivered in January 1997, it was retired in late 2000 and started being used for parts from 2002. This makes it the among the shortest-serving locomotives in NSB's service. NSB's initial motivation for the smaller units was to haul conventional local freight trains and affiliated heavy-duty shunting. With the reorganization of the railways during the late 1990s and early 2000s, this job fell out of use, making the locomotives poorly suited for NSB's network. The locomotives passed to
CargoNet CargoNet AS is the primary operator of freight trains on the Norwegian railway system. It was formed as NSB Gods after NSB (now Vy) fissioned into a passenger and a freight company. NSB Gods changed its name to CargoNet at the beginning of 200 ...
in 2002, after the split of
Norwegian State Railways Vygruppen, branded as Vy, is a government-owned railway company which operates most passenger train services and many bus services in Norway. The company is owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Transport. Its sub-brands include Vy Buss coach s ...
(NSB) into passenger and freight companies. From the mid-2000s CargoNet started looking for a replacement for the Di 8 in the freight trains, especially for on the Nordland Line. The company decided to lease six EMD Class 66 units, which entered service in Norway in 2005. The Di 8 remained in service, but in other trains. On 4 April 2011, a fire broke out on a Di 8 locomotive at
Kløfta Kløfta is a town located in Ullensaker, Akershus, Norway. It has a population of approximately 7,170 inhabitants. Kløfta has a soccer team called Kløfta IL, and a shopping market. Kløfta has three schools – a middle school and two first thr ...
on the
Trunk Line In telecommunications, trunking is a technology for providing network access to multiple clients simultaneously by sharing a set of circuits, carriers, channels, or frequencies, instead of providing individual circuits or channels for each clie ...
while hauling a 16-wagon train of jet fuel to
Oslo Airport, Gardermoen Oslo Airport ( no, Oslo lufthavn; ), alternatively referred to as Oslo Gardermoen Airport or simply Gardermoen, is the international airport serving Oslo, Norway, the capital and most populous city in the country. A hub for Flyr, Norse Atl ...
. The fire started in an electrical cabinet after a diesel pipe running over it had cracked. The fire fighting was complicated by the train dispatcher not wanting to disconnect the overhead wire power as he thought it was an electric train. The damages were so severe that the locomotive was scrapped. The Accident Investigation Board Norway criticized CargoNet for not having sufficient maintenance routines for diesel pipes, as they were neither part of the maintenance procedure nor where there specified intervals for replacement. With the delivery of the Class 66 and later the Vossloh Euro, CargoNet's need for the uneconomical and underdimensioned Di 8 fell through. The Euro was put into service on the Nordland Line and the Rauma Line, and NSB started looking for a possibility to sell the locomotives. In October 2011, GB Railfreight was awarded the contract for the operation of the railway after
Sahaviriya Steel Industries Sahaviriya Steel Industries PCL or simply SSI ( th, บริษัท สหวิริยาสตีลอินดัสตรี จำกัด (มหาชน)) is a Thai Multinational corporation, Multinational Steel-making company headq ...
had bought and reopened
Teesside Steelworks The Teesside Steelworks was a large steelworks that formed a continuous stretch along the south bank of the River Tees from the towns of Middlesbrough to Redcar in North Yorkshire, England. At its height there were 91 blast furnaces within ...
in Redcar, United Kingdom. They were thus in need for locomotives to haul the internal torpedo trains with liquid steel between the steelwork's blast furnaces and continuous casters. Ten Di 8s were thereby sold, of which the first five were shipped on 12 December 2011, and arrived on 20 December, and the last were delivered in January 2012. Eight of the ten locomotives will be used in revenue service; the other two will be used for parts. At that point, seven Di 8s remained in service with CargoNet, with one having been retired and one used for parts. No. 714 was, as the first Di 8, scrapped on 10 July 2013. On closure of
Teesside Steelworks The Teesside Steelworks was a large steelworks that formed a continuous stretch along the south bank of the River Tees from the towns of Middlesbrough to Redcar in North Yorkshire, England. At its height there were 91 blast furnaces within ...
in 2015, the locos were leased to
Tata Steel Tata Steel Limited is an Indian multinational steel-making company, based in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand and headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is a part of the Tata Group. Formerly known as Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited (TISCO), Tata S ...
(now British Steel) for use at their Scunthorpe works to replace the ageing Janus fleet
Fleet List
NSB Number → Status
8.701 → In Service British Steel Scunthorpe
8.702 → In Service British Steel Scunthorpe
8.703 → In Service British Steel Scunthorpe
8.704 → In Service British Steel Scunthorpe
8.705 → In Service NSB Berging og Beredskap AS
8.706 → In Service NSB Berging og Beredskap AS
8.707 → In Service NSB Berging og Beredskap AS
8.708 → In Service British Steel Scunthorpe
8.709 → In Service NSB AS
8.710 → In Service NSB AS
8.711 → Out of Service, for parts in Redcar (GB)
8.712 → Out of Service British Steel Scunthorpe
8.713 → In Service NSB Berging og Beredskap AS
8.714 → Scrapped Norway (Reliability Issues)
8.715 → In Service NSB Berging og Beredskap AS
8.716 → In Service British Steel Scunthorpe
8.717 → In Service British Steel Scunthorpe
8.718 → Out of Service, for parts British Steel Scunthorpe
8.719 → In Service British Steel Scunthorpe
8.720 → Out of Service British Steel Scunthorpe Source: Source:https://www.loks-aus-kiel.de/


Specifications

The Di 8 is a diesel-electric locomotive with a
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. They have a weight of and are built for standard gauge. The locomotives are long, wide and tall. The wheelbase on the bogies is , while the wheelbase between the bogies is . The wheels have a diameter of when new. Each locomotive is equipped with a Caterpillar 3516 DI-TA
prime mover Prime mover may refer to: Philosophy *Unmoved mover, a concept in Aristotle's writings Engineering * Prime mover (engine), motor, a machine that converts various other forms of energy (chemical, electrical, fluid pressure/flow, etc) into energy ...
and a fuel capacity of . This provides a power output of at 1,800 revolutions per minute, allowing for a maximum operating speed of . They have a starting tractive effort of 270 kilenewtons. The locomotives employ a Siemens Sibas 32 control system, along with an electrical transmission system from the same manufacturer. It takes advantage of water-cooled
gate turn-off thyristor A gate turn-off thyristor (GTO) is a special type of thyristor, which is a high-power (.e.g. 1200V AC) semiconductor device. It was invented by General Electric. GTOs, as opposed to normal thyristors, are fully controllable switches which can be ...
(GTO)
semiconductor A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical conductivity value falling between that of a conductor, such as copper, and an insulator, such as glass. Its resistivity falls as its temperature rises; metals behave in the opposite way. ...
technology for pulse-width modulation
inverter A power inverter, inverter or invertor is a power electronic device or circuitry that changes direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC). The resulting AC frequency obtained depends on the particular device employed. Inverters do the opp ...
s to supply power to the alternating current traction motors, located on a nose-suspended drive. The auxiliary electrical equipment was powered by an
insulated-gate bipolar transistor An insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) is a three-terminal power semiconductor device primarily used as an electronic switch, which, as it was developed, came to combine high efficiency and fast switching. It consists of four alternating lay ...
(IGBT) inverter. NSB's Di 3, Di 4, Di 6 and Di 8 can all be run with together with up to three locomotives in multiple. The class is characterized by motormen as a comfortable locomotive with a good working environment. Due to their loading gauge, the Di 8s cannot be used on the British mainline railways, and are limited to being used on the internal steelworks railways. In comparison to the NS 6400 and DE 1002, the Di 8s are (NS) and longer. The electrical transmission system saw
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 crea ...
systems replaced by Siemens and the installation of GTO and IGBT systems. The power output was significantly improved, from between . Caterpillar replace the other systems MTU and MWM motors. The increased power came at only a two-tonne weight penalty over the NS 6400.


References


Bibliography

* {{MaK-Vossloh locomotives Di 8 Di 8 Diesel-electric locomotives of Norway Bo-Bo locomotives Siemens locomotives MaK locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1996 Standard gauge locomotives of Norway Freight locomotives