Russia: According to Gudok daily, last Monday the new locomotive hauled a 6,200 t train with 62 cars over a distance of about 200 km after a successful test run under real conditions but without cars.
At the end of the week, Russian Railways, RZD, reported the locomotive hauled a heavier train of 7,018 t with 77 cars on the Babaevo–Ust-Luga route.
The 12,000 kW Malakhit was certified in August and delivered to RZD in December last year. The vehicle will be used on the St. Petersburg–Babaevo–Ust-Luga section of the Oktyabrskaya Railway, a branch of Russian Railways. Under a life-cycle contract, the Babaevo depot will provide its after-sales service.
Over the next month, the vehicle built by Ural Locomotives, a subsidiary of Sinara–Transport Machines, will undergo tests with an electric traction laboratory that will record its actual tractive effort. If these tests are also successful, the electric locomotive will be approved to haul trains over 12,000 t. RZD plans to use 3ES8 to haul 7,100 t trains on mountain rail sections of the Trans-Siberian Railway and 9,000 t trains in the European Russia.
