Russia orders gas turbine locos

[John Ashworth]

From The Railway Magazine, September 2012, p 93

Russia orders gas turbine locos

Russian Railways (RZD) has ordered up to 40 new twin-unit gas-turbine electric locomotives powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG). A pre-productin type GT1h loco will be built by Russian loco builder Sinara first - and tested in 2013/14 - before the following 39 further locos are built. The new 100 km/h locos are designed for use on freight trains to replace older diesel locos - Russia has vast reserves of natural gas making the fuel a potentially very attractive proposition. Development work over recent years has led to prototype loco (numbered as GT1 001), built by Voronezh Locomotive Repair Plant, which has hauled 12,000 tonne freight trains in trials carried out by RZD in recent years. GT1 001 is a BoBoBo + BoBoBo design weighing 300 tonnes when fully laoded with LNG and capable of 8,300 kW; the new GT1h design will be similar.