SNCF Class BB 60000 - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Not to be confused with the SNCF BB60000 prototypes from the 1950s and 1960s.

The SNCF class BB 60000 are a class of 4 axle heavy shunting and light freight diesel electric locomotives built at the Vossloh Espana works in Valencia

Valencia (province)

Valencia or València is a province of Spain, in the central part of the Valencian Community.It is bordered by the provinces of Alicante, Albacete, Cuenca, Teruel, Castellón, and the Mediterranean Sea...

. Since the class is primarily used as a freight locomotive the class is commonly referred to as SNCF BB460000.The prefix "4" used by FRET for freight locomotives

SNCF

SNCF

The SNCF , is France's national state-owned railway company. SNCF operates the country's national rail services, including the TGV, France's high-speed rail network...

made an initial order for 160 locomotives in 2004. The manufacturer's designation is GA 1000 AS. Two further machines have been ordered (2009) by Egenie of France.

History

At the end of the 1990s SNCF was faced with a diesel locomotive fleet of which the larger part was older than 30 years, and thus fuel-consuming and expensive in maintenance. Some locomotive classes were re-engined (BB66400 in BB69400, CC72000 in CC72100) to overcome some of the problems on the short term. In the longer term however, new locomotives had to be ordered as also the re-engined locomotives would reach the end of their useful age.

An initial plan saw 69 medium-power locomotives (together with the SBB

SBB-CFF-FFS

Swiss Federal Railways and SFR are not in official use) is the national railway company of Switzerland headquartered in Bern. Formerly a government institution, it is since 1999 a special stock corporation with all shares held by the Swiss Confederation or the Swiss cantons...

) and 55 high-power locomotives ordered. This plan was intensively modified, and eventually 160 low-power shunting locomotives (SNCF BB460000) and 400 medium-power locomotives (see BB475000) were ordered.

For the low-power shunting locomotives there were 3 biddings: Vossloh offered the G1000BB

Vossloh G1000 BB

The Vossloh G1000 BB is a class of off-centre cab diesel-hydraulic B'B' 4 axle locomotives built by Vossloh in Kiel since 2002. When operating under Swiss owenership the locomotives have received the class Am 842, several units owned by the Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Luxembourgeois are...

, the Italian firm Firema the D146 locomotive and Alstom with an enhanced version of the SBB Am841 locomotives. The Vossloh bid was deemed too expensive and also Firema couldn't convince FRET, so Alstom was awarded the contract in 2004By 2006 Vossloh had become owner of the Alstom plant in Valencia, and thus inherited and completed the order.

At first the locomotives were to be powered with an MTU

MTU Friedrichshafen

MTU Friedrichshafen GmbH is a manufacturer of commercial internal combustion engines founded by Wilhelm Maybach and his son Karl Maybach in 1909...

engine, as those engines were used in BB69400 and BB75000 locomotives and had a good performance, but the MTU engine was replaced with one from Caterpillar

Caterpillar Inc.

Caterpillar Inc. , also known as "CAT", designs, manufactures, markets and sells machinery and engines and sells financial products and insurance to customers via a worldwide dealer network. Caterpillar is the world's largest manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas...

due to financial reasons.

In October 2008 SNCF ordered an additional 15 locomotives for its Infrastructure division. These locomotives will be numbered in the 660000 series.The prefix "6" is used by the infrastructure division (SNCF Infra) for its locomotives, and will be painted in the yellow and grey Infrastructure livery.

Design and construction

Initially SNCF wanted to buy a "catalog" locomotive, i.e. a standardised locomotive type without too many changes. Alstom proposed an enhanced version of the SBB Am841, which were the latest shunting locomotives Alstom had built. But SNCF wanted access to the cab by frontal doors instead of side doors; thus the cab had to be completely redesigned. Because of this the BB60000 is considered to be a type of itself instead of a version of a standard locomotive.

The locomotive has nearly all of its technology derived from the SBB Am841, except for the cabin, engine and electric equipment. It has 2 hoods: the longer one houses the Caterpillar CAT3508B engine and the alternator

Alternator

An alternator is an electromechanical device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy in the form of alternating current.Most alternators use a rotating magnetic field but linear alternators are occasionally used...

, while the shorter one houses the electrical and brake equipment.

The cabin is rounder than the SBB Am841 from which it is derived. It has 2 full control desks and is equipped with air-conditioning. Bogie

Bogie

A bogie is a wheeled wagon or trolley. In mechanics terms, a bogie is a chassis or framework carrying wheels, attached to a vehicle. It can be fixed in place, as on a cargo truck, mounted on a swivel, as on a railway carriage/car or locomotive, or sprung as in the suspension of a caterpillar...

s are the same as its predecessors and have primary (coil springs with Silentbloc, plus vertical shock absorbers) and secondary ("Sandwich" blocs) suspension. There are two traction motors per bogie powered by IGBT based electronics. Brake equipment only consists of wheel brakes which are equipped with plastic brake pads.

The locomotives were built by Vossloh Espana, the electrical transmission (generator, rectifier, IGBT inverters, traction motors) was supplied by Alstom.

Career

After a homologation period of 2 years the first locomotives were delivered in late-2006. They faced some problems teething problems such as inadequate brake pads, causing unreliable shunting operations, and unwanted shocks caused by the locomotive's software. The first ten locomotives were retrofitted by Vossloh. The rest were delivered with the modifications.

All locomotives are allocated to the depot of Sotteville

Sotteville

Sotteville is a commune in the Manche department in Normandy in north-western France....

, nowadays known as the EIMM Normandie. This is their home depot however the locos work elsewhere in France and are maintained locally returning to their main depot of Sotteville only for major overhauls or modifications. Spheres of operation from 2010 are Paris (Le Bourget, Villeneuve St Georges, Trappes, Montereau, Chartres) Rennes,St Pierre de Corps, Bordeaux, Hendaye , Picardie region and Nord-Pas de Calais region.
They cover heavy shunting and local trip work. For example the Nord Pas-de Calais operate 14 non-nominated locomotives based for local maintenance at Lens and operating from Somain, Lille Delivrance and Dunkerque. Two locomotives in multiple-working are capable of hauling over 3,500 tonnes on the Lestrem branch line from Armentieres served from Lille Delivrance yard.

One unit has been used for SNCF's "Zéro pétrole" project (first decade 2000), and tested for operations using a 100% biodiesel derived fuel.

History

Design and construction

Career

See also

External links