In reply to increasing demand of electric locos especially in freight, Turkey announced its new loco: E5000.
Unlike the locos produced under the license of foreign manufacturers, E5000 will be Turkey’s national brand being produced in cooperation with Tübitak (Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey), Tülomsaş (Subsidiary of TCDD manufacturing locomotives) and Istanbul Technical University.
The efforts for national loco has been active for a while. The first product was E1000 in 2015 designed and produced by Tübitak MAM. E1000 is a shunting loco with 1 MW power.
The recently announced E5000 will be designed and produced in 4 years and will be an alternative to Toshiba E43000 locos mainly used for freight trains and Rotem E68000 mainly used for passenger trains. New loco will have 5 MW power and max speed of 160 km/h.
As electrification gets widespread and the new locomotive of Tulomsas, E68000 cannot meet the needs of rail freight, TCDD Tasimacilik has an increasing shortfall of freight locos.
As electric locos have low energy and maintanance costs and better traction, the new train operators are expected to prefer them as well.
Currently, there are 125 electric locos in Turkey (45 x E43000 locos and 80 x E68000), all are owned by TCDD Tasimacilik. 15 of E43000 locos are rented to Omsan. It’s still a big question mark if E5000 will meet the nees and how shortfall will be solved until E5000 is produced.
Cover Photo: TÜBİTAK ©
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