Azerbaijan: The Chinese rolling stock producer has shown the first AC50-series locomotive built for Azerbaijan to a delegation from national operator ADY at its Ziyang plant.
The six-axle (Co-Co) locomotive is one of seven ordered in May 2025, with delivery to Azerbaijan due in September — the manufacturer’s first rolling stock supply to the country. The locomotives will work transit freight traffic crossing Azerbaijan.
During the site visit the two sides also discussed buying a further 14 in a later phase, and signed a separate contract for four passenger locomotives to follow in 2027.
AC is CRRC’s export range of mainline locomotives, already running in Thailand, Sierra Leone and Mozambique. The AC50 carries a 3,680 kW diesel engine and tops out at 100 km/h. Starting tractive effort is 524 kN, falling to 420 kN in continuous mode, and the locomotive can take curves down to a 70 m radius. The type can run in multiple as a pair or in threes; coupled as a pair, two machines can haul trains of up to 10,000 tonnes.
CRRC is pushing mainline diesel exports across the rest of the 1,520 mm space too. A large order from national operator Kazakhstan Temir Zholy is bringing its TE36A locomotives onto the network, a design built on the new FXN3C platform around a diesel engine CRRC developed itself. RailGallery puts the number already in Kazakhstan at more than 50. Two freight locomotives of another model have also gone recently to Turkmenistan’s Demiryollary.
