Russia: This was the news announced by Anton Zubikhin, Deputy General Director for Sales of Sinara Transport Machines (STM), at the international forum-exhibition Russian Industrialist. “Next year, seven locomotives will be put into service on the Baikal-Amur Mainline and the Pacific Railway”, he said.
The company is developing the 2TE35A mainline diesel locomotive at the request of Russian Railways. Under a contract signed in 2021, STM will deliver up to 200 locomotives to the national operator by 2032. According to Roman Ovchinnikov, deputy general designer of STM’s Centre for Research and Development, the Pacific Railway’s management company, ELSI, has also requested these vehicles. Further details of the cooperation between STM and ELSI have not yet been made public.
The locomotive is designed to haul 7,100 t trains on mountain railway sections in eastern Russia. The 7,300 kW vehicle will be 48 m long and have a top speed of 120 km/h. According to the manufacturer, its basic configuration includes an automatic train operation and virtual coupling systems, while track diagnostics, machine vision, and remote control systems are optional. Some of its components are also used in the 3ES8 and 2ES6 electric locomotives. In the future, STM plans to add the single-section TE35A diesel locomotive, 2TE35AG gas locomotive with tender, and 2TE25Ah hydrogen locomotive.
The rendering of the 2TE35A mainline diesel locomotive. Source: Sinara Group
The full-scale 2TE35A has not yet been unveiled. In August this year, Elektrotyazhmash-Privod, one of Russia’s largest manufacturers of electrical power equipment, certified the TAD-430 asynchronous traction motors that will be used in the 2TE35A. A month later, the Sinara Group reported that the Ural Locomotives plant, a part of the holding, had completed testing of two-axle locomotive bogies, which are coupled in pairs in eight-axle sections of the locomotive.
The decision is now being made as to where the 2TE35A will be assembled, at Ural Locomotives or at another STM company, the Lyudinovo Diesel Locomotive Plant. As Roman Ovchinnikov reported in the summer, the annual output will be up to 40 two-section diesel locomotives. In the mainline diesel locomotive market, STM will now compete with TMH, which has recently certified its 3TE28 locomotives and is developing a new-generation locomotive, the 2TE30.
