The East is Red: Roco's DB Schenker class 155 in oriental red
Entry posted by NGT6 1315
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Morning all.
Recent events had kept me from actually posting the following article, which I had, in fact, prepared a while ago - based on an earlier version of it, which I would think some of you may remember from Old RMweb. In this earlier article, I had presented a DB Schenker class 155 electric in the now-standard traffic red and basalt grey livery, which but I have since exchanged for a different version of this trademark locomotive from the former East German Deutsche Reichsbahn.
So, the model we shall be looking at today is Roco's item 62437, representing one of two 155s still wearing the oriental red livery which had first been introduced on Bundesbahn engines in the late 1980s, and eventually been applied to numerous ex-DR locos as well. This variant of Roco's model was released only this spring, and while I believe pronouncing this livery to have been controversial may be a prize understatement, I did want to have more visual variety in my motive power inventory - which is why it suited me fairly well.
Development and historic background
After Germany had been split into two states in the aftermath of World War II, railway operations on both sides of the inner-German border continued under new names. In the West, the legal successor to the late Deutsche Reichsbahn was called Deutsche Bundesbahn, and created on 7 September 1949. Meanwhile, and perhaps a bit oddly, the East German state railways, which were created the same year, retained the name „Deutsche Reichsbahn“. There are several explanations for this detail, one of which being the fact that an Allied decree had mandated railway operations in West Berlin to explicitly remain in the hands of Deutsche Reichsbahn. As the GDR leadership felt it to be politically important to keep its hold on these services, it was feared that a possible name change would void their claim. This but is just one example of how differently the railways in both German states would evolve in the following decades, given the political situation of the time.
The first types of electric locomotives to be newly designed and built in the German Democratic Republic were the classes E 11 and E 42. They were largely identical to one another, with the E 11 – first built in 1961 – being the passenger variant and the E 42, whose production began in 1962, the freight variant – much as was the case with the West German E 10 and E 40. Interestingly, the GDR had, in fact, attempted to obtain permission for licence builds of the West German E 10 and E 40, but been unsuccessful, resulting in the need for developing suitable locos domestically. Also, there appears to be a claim among railway historians that, assuming a reunification of the two German states in the near future, Deutsche Reichsbahn chose their class numbers – E 11 and E 42 – deliberately, so as to allow for easy integration of both railways' motive power inventories – with Deutsche Bundesbahn having procured classes like the E 10, E 40 and E 41 around the same time.
In general terms, it should also be mentioned that the German Democratic Republic‘s Deutsche Reichsbahn was initially slow in adopting electric traction on their network, which in 1979 comprised a total length of 14,164 kilometres, of which only 1,621 were electrified. This, of course, also had much to do with both post-war reparations which had resulted in significant lengths of overhead lines and associated equipment in the Soviet zone having been dismantled, and numerous electric locos from the pre-1945 Reichsbahn inventory having been shipped to the Soviet Union along with it. However, much of this equipment was returned in the early 50s in an effort to stabilise the GDR economy, resulting in electric operations recommencing in 1955.
In addition, economic obligations for the entire East Bloc set by the COMECON resulted in GDR locomotive builders having to concentrate on manufacturing diesel locomotives, and the GDR having access to cheap oil from the Soviet Union till the second oil crisis of 1979 also affected the Warsaw Pact states. Consequently, railway electrification was speeded up again by the early 80s, obviously also generating a large demand for suitable electric locomotives in order to replace the fleet of pre-war class 204 (E 04), 218 (E 18), 244 (E 44) and 254 (E 94) locos, as well as augment the GDR-designed class 211 and 242 Bo‘Bo‘ and 250 Co‘Co‘ locomotives. In addition, a replacement for the class 251 Co‘Co‘ electrics used only on the 25 kV AC Rübeland Railway was also considered desirable.
However, let us turn our attention back to the 1960s for the moment.
By the middle of the decade, rail traffic in the GDR had increased to a degree which began to exceed the capabilities of both the E 11 and E 42 – especially in freight service. Operational experience showed that even multiple units of these classes was not always sufficient, so it was soon accepted that a Co‘Co‘ electric locomotive would have to be procured, in order to handle both heavy passenger and freight trains. Initial plans for a Co‘Co‘ configured locomotive had, in fact, been made in parallel to those for the Bo‘Bo‘ classes E 11 and E 42, but could not be implemented immediately as production capacities were insufficient at that time. While the new Co‘Co‘ locomotive was given the preliminary designation of E 51 during the design phase, the changeover to computer-formatted numbers – which Deutsche Reichsbahn implemented in 1970 – led to the production locos being designated as class 250. As those of you knowledgeable in the field of German railways may know, Deutsche Reichsbahn had reserved the 200 range for electric locomotives and EMUs, and the 100 range for diesels and DMUs, whereas Deutsche Bundesbahn used the 100 range for electrics and 200 for mainline diesels, with separate ranges – 400 and 600 – being used for EMUs and DMUs respectively.
Three prototypes, designated as 250 001 through 003, were presented in 1974, and production began in 1977. A total of 270 production locos was built until 1984 – the prototypes visibly differing from the production locos in having significantly larger windscreens and the centre headlight above these rather than below. These three locos thus became known by the nickname of „Granny“ (German: „Oma“), while the production 250s are usually referred to as „Container“, „Suitcase“ („Koffer“), „Tin Loaf“ („Kastenbrot“) or „Pan Loaf“ („Kommißbrot“) by railfans – owing to their boxy and unadorned appearance. Like all GDR electrics, the 250 was designed and built at the People-Owned Locomotive and Electrical Engineering Works "Hans Beimler" at Hennigsdorf near Berlin. In terms of its technological level, it could be said to be a kind of forerunner to the famous class 243 Bo‘Bo‘ electrics, now known as class 143.
After reunification, the class was redesignated as 155 in 1992, and became part of the DB AG motive power inventory in 1994. While 155s could be seen working passenger services during the early DB AG years – much as they had often done in the GDR – they were later allocated to the freight branch now called DB Schenker, at which point passenger operations for this class ceased altogether.
In the early 2000s, a number of 155s was plagued by material fatigue around the bogies, leading to the entire class being temporarily restricted to 80 kph (50 mph). However, as the 155 remains an important part of DB Schenker's inventory – being frequently used for container, chemical and coal and steel services – a good number of locomotives remains in service until this day. Revisions are carried out at the Dessau repair works in Saxony-Anhalt, one of DB AG‘s principal repair facilities, which are now also open for locomotives owned by other operators.
Technical description
The 155's body and frame are welded steel assemblies, with the frame consisting of two longitudinal beams, two transversal end beams doubling as buffer beams, two primary inner transversal beams also carrying the pivot pins, and several auxiliary beams for reinforcement. The bufferbeams were prepared for installation of the standardised UIC automatic coupler which was planned to be introduced in the late 1970s, but then postponed indefinitely. The production locos were also fitted with snow ploughs located below the buffer beams.
The body is a self-supporting structure and consists of three subassemblies, namely the two cabs and the engine room section. Additional strengthening beams and braces are provided throughout, and the engine room sides are corrugated to also provide additional structural strength. The engine room roof consists of three independently removable panels for better maintenance access. As is common on East German electrics, there also is a rooftop hatch, allowing personnel access to topside equipment from inside the locomotive. Large ventilation grilles are placed in the upper half of the engine room sides.
Inside the body, there are a primary and secondary corridor through the length of the engine room. Four outer doors permit access to the cabs, which in turn are laid out with control desks located on the right-hand side. The power controller is wheel-shaped and placed centrally in front of the driver, with Cab 2 also containing a small fridge and sink for the driver, located to the left of the footwell and in the rear bulkhead respectively.
An overview of the cab. Note the TFT screen, which is for the electronic working timetable, also known as EBuLa. This 155 here would appear to have retained the cab instruments from the original GDR-designed PZ 80 train protection set. This system is, of course, compatible with the standard trackside RLC circuits used in all of Germany as well as Austria, but as delivered was different in offering braking curve monitoring based on maximum speed settings at 10 kph intervals. By contrast, the West German Indusi I 60, I 60 R and PZB 90 devices offer only three speed ranges: U, M and O, calibrated for maximum speeds of 100, 120 and 160 kph respectively, and with different speed check thresholds. Meanwhile, those ex-DR locos which still have the PZ 80 onboard devices have but been given the common PZB 90 software, as this is now a standard requirement. Interestingly, the PZ 80 cab instrument – which is the one on the supporting arm in the right-hand corner of the desk – also includes a digital speedometer, thus eliminating the need for a standard analogue instrument. To the left and slightly in front of the power controller, the reverser is located, with the handle being removable and only one handle per loco being provided as a safeguard against both reversers possibly being set separately by accident. In fact, the handle is removed in this view.
Image taken and uploaded to Wikipedia by user „Solaris2006“ under the terms and conditions of the GNU Free Documentation Licence 1.2. As such, re-use in this article is subject to the same terms and conditions.
Meanwhile, the bogies feature a welded steel frame with two longitudinal and four transversal beams – three of which carry the traction motors – and a pivot pin bearing. There is an inter-bogie coupling assembly, for the purpose of the bogies steering each other through curves. The three wheelsets per bogie are spaced asymmetrically, with the distance between the outer and centre wheelsets being larger than that between the centre and inner wheelsets. The axleboxes are held by levers which are attached to the bogie frame, and supported by two helical springs per bearing. The outer wheelsets also have vertical shock absorbers, while the centre wheelsets have ten millimetres of lateral motion to both sides for better curve running. As a whole, the bogies are suspended from the frame by way of four double helical springs per bogie.
The transformer is an oil-cooled three-core design with a high voltage LNSW 12 type tap changer, which has thirty-one power notches spaced at 500 V intervals and is assisted by thyristor modules for bridging notches and more accurate power control. There also is a background tractive effort monitoring function, whereby each power notch has a tractive effort target value assigned to it. Notches 29 through 31 are designed as reserve notches for low OHLE voltage situations. In case of malfunctions, the tap changer can also be operated in an „impulse“ mode without tractive effort monitoring, notching up and down for as long as the controller is held in the corresponding position.
Additional transformer taps for auxiliary systems, ETS and dynamic brake excitation are provided as well.
The traction motors are a nose-suspended twelve-pole design, utilising a variation of the double-sided LEW quill drive for power transmission. They have a gear ratio of 1 : 2.72 and provide a maximum rated output of 900 kW each. The motors can work in dynamic braking mode, with each motor having one rheostat allocated to it. These are located in a cooling tower inside the engine room. In braking mode, they have a maximum continuous output of 2,500 kW and a maximum continuous braking force of 159 kN. The dynamic brake is blended with the pneumatic brake, which takes over below 35 kph (22 mph).
Rooftop equipment includes two pantographs, which were VM 28-31 type diamond types originally, but have been replaced by Stemmann DSA 200 single arm types on most of the remaining 155s. Also, two manually operated pantograph cut-off switches are provided – which were a common feature on GDR-built electrics – , as is a measuring voltage transformer, air blast circuit breaker and current limiter.
Safety systems include a distance/time-based alerter („Sifa“) as well as the PZB train protection system, though several 155s also have had LZB cab signalling fitted. The GDR Sifa variant is set up differently from the West German variety, in that it performs vigilance checks at random intervals up to a maximum duration of 30 seconds, so as to avoid the issue of drivers often getting so used to the fixed 30-second interval of the West German Sifa that they unconsciously trigger the alerter pedal, possibly reducing the system‘s effectiveness.
Auxiliary systems are powered by a 380 V/50 HZ three phase AC circuit, and include one 125 kW inverter, one 12 kW main compressor, one 14 kW braking rheostat blower, six 6 kW traction motor blowers, one 3.5 kW coolant oil pump, two 2.2 kW transformer heat exchanger blower, and one 500 W blower for the tap changer thyristor elements.
The pneumatic brake is multiple lapped with direct shunting brake valve, and has the common settings G, P and R. Driver‘s brake valves are DAKO BS-4 types, while the direct brake valves are BP types. There are two brake pads per wheel.
And this is what all these paragraphs describe in dry, technical prose:
There can be no doubt that aesthetics played a fairly minor role in the 155‘s design. Like most other Roco models, their 155 – since released in a variety of guises, including DR maroon, DB traffic red with both single arm and diamond pans, and indeed the prototype variant – is finely detailed all around. As mentioned further up, this model is distributed with catalogue number 62437, and represents 155 214, one of the two 155s in DB Schenker‘s fleet still wearing the oriental red livery. Interestingly, both 155 214 and 219 combine this livery with single arm pantographs.
On the 155, the handrails around the cab doors are actually made of metal, which appears to be a new standard on several recent Roco models. As usual, a small bag of add-on bits is included, containing the PZB receivers (which have to be slid on a retaining pin at the right rear of each bogie) as well as brake pipes and fake UIC couplers.
Right side of the Cab 1 end, with the following inscriptions: last revision completed at the Dessau repair works (LDX) on 27 March 2007; Knorr-Einheitsbremse with settings G, P and R and direct brake valve; operating weight of 123 tonnes; braking weights:
R 143 tonnes
P 124 tonnes
G 106 tonnes
The Cab 2 end with several additional inscriptions, including the owner's inscription (Railion Deutschland AG, Berlin) above the second wheelset. The bogie frames are just as finely detailed as the rest of the model.
Looking into the cab, you can see that Roco actually highlighted the control desk details with fine touches of paint, which has not been common on most of their other models of electric and diesel locos thus far.
Large, round headlights like those installed on the 155 were actually fairly typical of GDR motive power. Also note the horn being attached vertically to the cab face.
And finally a look at the roof - the circuit breaker being located between the air reservoirs and the central superstructure. I believe I will yet see to amending the busbar here and there, much as I did on my 181.
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