A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, motor coach, railcar or power car; the use of these self-propelled vehicles is increasingly common for passenger trains, but rare for freight trains.
A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the power source is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving wheels. The most common are diesel-electric locomotives and diesel-hydraulic.
The EMD AEM-7 is a twin-cab four-axle 7,000 hp (5.2 MW) B-B electric locomotive built by Electro-Motive Division (EMD) and ASEA between 1978 and 1988. The locomotive is a derivative of the Swedish SJ Rc4 designed for passenger service in the United States. The primary customer was Amtrak, which bought 54 for use on the Northeast Corridor and Keystone Corridor. Two commuter operators, MARC and SEPTA, also purchased locomotives, for a total of 65.
An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime movers, such as diesel engines or gas turbines, are classed as diesel–electric or gas turbine–electric and not as electric locomotives, because the electric generator/motor combination serves only as a power transmission system.
The Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 is a class of streamlined electric locomotives built for the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), in the northeastern United States. The class was known for its striking art deco shell, its ability to pull trains at up to 100 mph, and its long operating career of almost 50 years.
The Bombardier–Alstom HHP-8 is a type of twin-cab electric locomotive manufactured by a consortium of Bombardier Transportation and Alstom for Amtrak and MARC. The locomotive's electrical drive technology is directly derived from the SNCF BB 36000 manufactured by Alstom.
Steeplecab is railroad terminology for a style or design of electric locomotive; the term is rarely if ever used for other forms of power. The name originated in North America and has been used in Britain as well.
The GE E60 is a family of six-axle 6,000 hp (4.5 MW) C-C electric locomotives made by GE Transportation Systems (GE) between 1972 and 1983. The E60s were produced in several variants for both freight and passenger use in the United States and Mexico. GE designed the locomotive for use on the Black Mesa and Lake Powell Railroad (BM&LP), a dedicated coal-hauling route in Arizona, which began operation in 1973. That same year GE adapted the design for high-speed passenger service on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor. The largest customer was Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México (NdeM), the state-owned railroad in Mexico, which bought 39 for a new electrification project in the early 1980s.
The Visalia Electric Railroad, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP), began as an electric interurban railroad in Tulare County, in the U.S. State of California. The railroad was incorporated on April 22, 1904. Passenger service was discontinued in 1924, and the electrification was removed in 1944. Subsequent operation was by diesel locomotive. The railroad was closed in 1992.
The Virginian EL-C, later known as the New Haven EF-4 and E33, was an electric locomotive built for the Virginian Railway by General Electric in August 1955. They were the first successful production locomotives to use Ignitron rectifier technology. Although they proved to be a successful design, no more EL-Cs were built, due to the small number of railroads that had electrification and the advent of improved electric locomotive technology. They were among the last mainline electric freight locomotives in the United States.
The RP-210 was a streamlined 1,000 hp (750 kW) locomotive built in 1956 by Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton, specifically to operate with the experimental, all-aluminum Train-X coaches that were built by the Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing Company. The model represented Baldwin's attempted entry into the lightweight passenger locomotive market, but only three of the low-slung diesel-hydraulic units were produced. The first RP-210 was built for the New York Central Railroad to power their Ohio Xplorer train between Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati, and a pair was purchased by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad to double-end their Dan'l Webster, running between New York City and Boston.
The South African Railways Class 11E of 1985 is an electric locomotive.
The Spoornet Class 14E1 of 1994 was a South African electric locomotive.
The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad pioneered electrification of main line railroads using high-voltage, alternating current, single-phase overhead catenary. It electrified its mainline between Stamford, Connecticut, and Woodlawn, New York, in 1907 and extended the electrification to New Haven, Connecticut, in 1914. While single-phase AC railroad electrification has become commonplace, the New Haven's system was unprecedented at the time of construction. The significance of this electrification was recognized in 1982 by its designation as a Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).
The N&W LC-1 was a class of boxcab electric locomotives built by Baldwin-Westinghouse for the Norfolk and Western Railway. The locomotives were part of an electrification project undertaken by the N&W to improve traffic conditions on the Elkhorn grade in its Bluefield Division. Baldwin-Westinghouse delivered 12 twin-unit boxcabs in 1914–1915. N&W scrapped them in 1950 when it discontinued electric operations.
The New Haven EP-1 was a class of boxcab electric locomotives built by Baldwin-Westinghouse for the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. The locomotives were part of an electrification project undertaken by the New Haven between Grand Central Terminal in New York City and Stamford, Connecticut. Baldwin-Westinghouse delivered 41 locomotives between 1905–1908, and the New Haven retired the last in 1947.
The BB 13000 class were electric locomotives operated by SNCF in France. They were one of four classes, together with the BB 12000, CC 14000 and CC 14100 classes, that formed an experimental group for studying the practicality of the new French 25 kV 50 Hz AC electrification.
The New Haven EP-2 was a class of boxcab electric locomotives built by Baldwin-Westinghouse for the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. The locomotives worked passenger trains on the New Haven's electrified division west of New Haven, Connecticut. Baldwin-Westinghouse delivered 27 locomotives between 1919–1927. The locomotives were an enlarged version of the EP-1 and EF-1 designs. They remained in service until the arrival of the dual-mode EMD FL9 locomotives in 1958.
The Great Northern Z-1 was a class of ten electric locomotives built for the Great Northern Railway They were used to work the route through the second Cascade Tunnel. They were built between 1926–1928 by Baldwin Locomotive Works, with Westinghouse electrics, and stayed in service until dieselisation in 1956. Each was of 1,830 horsepower (1,360 kW) with a 1-D-1 wheel arrangement, although they were always used in coupled pairs.
Rigid-framed electric locomotives were some of the first generations of electric locomotive design. When these began the traction motors of these early locomotives, particularly with AC motors, were too large and heavy to be mounted directly to the axles and so were carried on the frame. One of the initial simplest wheel arrangements for a mainline electric locomotive, from around 1900, was the 1′C1′ arrangement, in UIC classification.
