The Unlucky Austrian Princess...

[NGT6 1315]

Evening all ...

 

As I promised several days ago, here is Part 1 of my Austrian Week . To cut it short - the engine I would like to introduce to you this time will be Jägerndorfer's H0 scale ÖBB class 1822. The following story should also give you an idea of why I came up with the title for this thread.

 

In the late 1980s, Swiss power and automation corporation ABB was part of the consortium tasked with the development of what would later be the famous „Lok 2000“ electric engine, eventually operated by the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) as class Re 460, private operator BLS as class Re 465, as well as the Norwegian and Finnish state railways and Hong Kong-based operator ktt. The electric traction equipment used on this engine had inverters with an intermediate direct current link operating on 3 kV DC as one of the central elements which would have permitted the development of a dual system Lok 2000 variant capable of operating in Italy. Actually, the BLS did consider procuring a modified, 3 kV capable variant of their Re 465 which would have allowed goods trains to be operated from the German border through Switzerland and into Italy, but later refrained from doing so. However, observers would later notice that ABB, looking for additional customers for 3 kV capable locomotives, then turned to the Austrian government, persuading them that the Austrian Federal Railways were, in fact, in need for just this kind of locomotive, arguing that it could well be used for expanding road-rail intermodal trains from Germany through Austria and into Italy across the busy and important Brenner Railway.One of the initial concept drawings for this locomotive was, in fact, quite unconventional in that it was shown with low-mounted buffers and couplers which would have allowed it to be directly coupled to „Rolling Highway“ low floor wagons used for piggybacking lorries without the need for the drawing gear on these wagons to be extended above their floor level. However, this would, of course, severely have curtailed the engines' versatility by having made them incompatible with all other types of rolling stock.

 

In any case, ABB proceeded to promise that a 3 kV DC/15 kV AC dual system engine would allow scheduled stopover times at the border station at Brenner to be shortened by as much as two hours – in spite of experts and railway staff pointing out that the locomotive change at this station in actuality did take only a fraction of two hours. Also, considering the gradients on the Brenner Railway – 2.6% on the northern section and 2.3% on the southern section – mandated multiple working for trains exceeding 550 tonnes anyway, the new dual system engine would have had to work in assisted running with at least one additional locomotive, which would then, of course, have to be shunted aside at Brenner Station, if only fitted for 15 kV AC. That and the required brake check after removing the helper engine would most likely have consumed significant lengths of time, thereby eliminating a big part of the time potentially saved by using a dual system locomotive.

 

Nevertheless, the ÖBB did go ahead with the project anyway and ordered an initial number of five new locomotives from a consortium consisting of ABB, Siemens and Simmering-Graz-Pauker, which were designated as class 1822 – perhaps hoping that putting them into traffic would generate sufficient demand that additional orders and a modified road-rail traffic concept with up to 28 daily pairs of trains between Munich and Verona might be justified. However, Austria and Italy never did make any such agreement.

 

The first fully assembled locomotive, 1822 001, was unveiled in Graz on 18 December 1990 and then transported to ABB's Tramont Works in Zurich for initial testing in February 1991. However, persisting problems with key items such as the control software and inverters led to it being activated for the first time only in October 1991. In May 1992 it then underwent actual route trials on the Lötschberg Railway, having been fitted with a 1,450 mm head on its AC pantograph for this purpose. In October it was then returned to Austria, continuing its initial trials on the 3 kV Puster Valley Railway between the stations of Innichen/San Candido and Toblach/Dobbiaco. To speed up the certification procedure for the Italian network the ÖBB accepted 1822 003 in 1993, which was then used in trials between Florence and Orte as well as Brenner and Bolzano.

 

By 1996 all five 1822s had been accepted by the ÖBB, which but did not show any interest in procuring additional engines of this type. Also, ABB themselves had unveiled a concept of their own for a 3 kV/15 kV dual system engine for the Italian state railways (FS) in the meantime, later to be called E.412, of which twenty were built for the FS and an additional eight for the Polish state railways (PKP) as class EU43. However, the latter were never accepted by the PKP due to financial problems and were later sold on to private Italian operator RTC.

 

The 1822 was allocated to the Innsbruck depot, but then used mainly for corridor passenger traffic from Innsbruck to Lienz and on the Kufstein-Innsbruck and Drau Valley Railways, thereby running under 3 kV DC power on the Italian part of the Brenner Railway as well as the entire Puster Valley Railway which branches off from the Brenner Railway at Franzensfeste, or Fortezza, as it is called in Italian. To my knowledge it was never certified for Germany, in spite of its 15 kV AC capability.

 

In 2005, engines 1822 002 and 005 were sold to Polish operator PTKiGK (Przedsiębiorstwo Transportu Kolejowego i Gospodarki Kamieniem) which is headquartered in Rybnik.

 

With the 3 kV DC capable class 1216 „Taurus“ type engines having entered service with the ÖBB in the meantime, few workings remain for the 1822, however, and it is likely that the three engines left in the ÖBB inventory will eventually be withdrawn as well. Generally speaking, I guess one could say that this class has always been a less than favoured child, which may be further evidenced by the fact that a couple of design deficiencies – none of which were dangerous, though – have never been ironed out. One item which might be mentioned here is that the bogies proved to have poor running capabilities under certain circumstances, especially when running through strongly banked curves on wet rails and under high tractive effort at low speeds, thus causing excessive wear on both wheels and rails. Other items which have, in fact, been resolved included the flange greasers not properly aligning with the radially adjusting wheelsets in curves, the wheel disks having been insufficiently dimensioned initially and thus required replacement, and one incident where the gear wheel on one wheelset came loose, thus taking away one quarter of the engine's power. Also, it should be mentioned that the MU control equipment on the 1822 is proprietary to this class, meaning that the engine cannot run in multiples with other classes, such as the ubiquitous 1044/1144 and „Taurus“ types.

 

And now for a bit of technical information about this class!

 

The bogies were designed by Swiss manufacturer SLM and are similar to those used on the class Re 450 engines for the Zurich S-Bahn, consisting of two longitudinal and three transversal beams. They are connected to the frame with traction bars attached to pivots on the underside of the central transversal beam, and suspended by four sets of three Flexicoil springs with auxiliary rubber elements for sound absorption per bogie. Hydraulic shock absorbers serve to dampen both vertical and rotational motion. There also is a backup pivot pin attached to the upper side of the transversal beam and protruding into a bearing on the underside of the engine's frame. Meanwhile, the outside transversal beams carry the reception circuits for the Italian SASIB train protection system, and buffer blocks serve to limit both the longitudinal and transversal range of motion of the bogies. The bogies also feature radially adjusting wheelsets which are suspended from the bogie frames with Flexicoil springs supported by hydraulic shock absorbers, and held in tapered roller bearings. Power transmission is made through one single-sided, helicoidal gearbox per wheelset with a ratio of 1:4.136, with the traction motors being suspended both from the central transversal beam and the axles using flexible rubber bearings and self-steering sliding bearings respectively.

 

The frame consists of two longitudinal beams, two transversal beams on the outer ends doubling as headstocks, two transversal beams above the bogie centres and four additional transversal beams between the bogies. Crumple elements are provided between the buffers and the headstocks for added crash protection. Meanwhile, the body is a lightweight steel design with corrugated sides and hollow aluminium roof segments, while the front sides are polyester mouldings. The roof can be removed in three segments for ease of maintenance.

 

Inside, all internal traction equipment is located in cabinets to both sides of a central aisle between the two cabs. This comprises the following items:

 

• 24 V low voltage electrics rack and 380 V 3 ~ auxiliary systems rack
• Four traction motor blowers and two blowers for the oil-based liquid cooling circuit
• Auxiliary systems inverter
• One traction inverter per bogie
• Contactor rack
• Control systems and diagnostics rack
• Absorption circuit
• 3 kV DC circuit breaker
• Main compressor and auxiliary compressor, both with dehumidifiers
• Pneumatics rack
• Auxiliary air reservoir

The transformer is located under the floor and has a power output of 4,634 kVA, as well as four secondary side output tabs with 1,008 kVA, 1,884 V and a maximum current of 850 A each, plus one ETS tab with 600 kVA, 1,000 V and 600 A. Likewise, the main air reservoirs are located under the floor as well, three of these having a capacity of 267 litres and one of 160 litres respectively. The traction motors are a six-pole squirrel cage asynchronous AC design with an output of 1,105 kW, maximum voltage of 2,190 V, maximum current of 413 A and maximum operating frequency of 148.2 Hz each. Their maximum speed amounts to 2,989 rpm.

 

The inverters have a standard 4-quadrant chopper arrangement with intermediate direct current link, which operates on 1,750 V per inverter under 15 kV AC, and with a tolerance of between 2 and 4.2 kV under DC power, where the transformer is, of course, bypassed. As previously indicated, there are separate circuit breakers for AC and DC power, with the AC one being a DBTF 20i200 air blast type which is located on the roof.

 

The brakes are electronically controlled and allow for blending of the pneumatic and electric brake, with one pair of brake shoes per wheel and spring-loaded parking brake. Both indirect and direct braking controls are provided, as well as a speed control device similar to the German AFB system. The electric brake works in recuperating mode and with a maximum output of 2 MW under AC power, and in rheostatic mode under DC power, for which purpose large air-cooled resistors with 1 MW of power are mounted on the roof on the Cab 1 side. The maximum electric brake force is 140 kN for normal trains and at speeds above 50 kph, and 100 kN between 50 and 40 kph. The electric brake force is limited to 75 kN for low-floor „Rolling Highway“ formations, however.

 

On the roof, three ÖBB type VII single arm pantographs are provided, with two of these being fitted with a 1,450 mm head with steel/copper contacts and forced graphite lubrication for Italy, and the third having a 1,950 mm head with carbon contacts for the Austrian AC OHLE. The AC pantograph is located on the Cab 2 side, while the braking rheostats are on the Cab 1 side.

 

The control gear is based on a distributed processing MICAS-S2 suite with optic fibre conductors and a 1.1 MBaud speed. Speed is measured by a Hasler TELOC device while the brakes are controlled by a Knorr HZR computer.

 

The train protection suite comprises the Indusi system for Austria and the Sifa dead man device, as well as the SASIB cab signalling suite for Italy. ÖBB and FS standard communication devices are also provided, and provisions are in place for the installation of the LZB cab signalling system. In the engine room, a fire detection and extinguishing system is provided, as mandated by the Italian authorities. Separate radios are provided for Austria and Italy – the Austrian unit being a Kapsch ZFM-90 type and the Italian one being based on modulated current transmission through the OHLE.

 

Generally speaking, the cab is laid out according to Austrian norms and similar to the famous class 1044, with the driver sitting on the right-hand side. As two-man operation is mandatory in Italy, a FS driver (or the guard on passenger trains) takes the second seat. In practice, trains on the Puster Valley Railway are handled by ÖBB drivers, in spite of the line being located on Italian territory. The following image from Wikipedia may serve to illustrate the layout: Click.

 

(Image taken by Wikipedia user Sese_Ingolstadt and published under the Creative Commons ShareAlike 2.5 licence)

 

Beginning in the foreground, there are the following instruments on the display plane:

 

• ÖBB and FS radio
• Tractive and braking effort indicator (leftmost gauge)
• Speedometer
• Indusi indicator lights (below tractive/braking effort indicator and speedometer)
• Ammeter and OHLE voltage indicator
• SASIB indicator lights and buttons (below ammeter and voltage indicator)
• Master status and diagnostics terminal
• Brake pressure gauges

The leftmost lever on the desk is the speed control regulator (which must be unlocked with the white button located in its base), with the power and electric brake regulator located next to it. The glazed recess immediately in front of the driver is intended for the working timetable, while the indirect brake controller is the lever immediately to the right of it. The direct brake controller is located off to the extreme right of the desk, below the rear view mirror which can be folded in and out pneumatically.

 

The various switches on the desk itself serve the following functions - again, looking from left to right:

 

• Indusi proceed order, release and acknowledgement switch and associated status lights
• country mode switch (labelled "FS" and "ÖBB")
• reverser buttons (the transparent items located towards both ends of the speed control lever)
• radio mode switch (wireless or FM mode)
• MU mode selector (labelled "MASTER", "SLAVE" and "SYNC")
• pantograph switch (forward position "up", aft position "down")
• emergency off button
• circuit breaker switch (forward position "on", aft position "off")
• engine room blower mode selector (positions: "permanently on", "automatically controlled" and "off")
• traction motor blower mode selector (same positions as for engine room blowers)
• ETS activation and deactivation switch
• internal and external light switches, including headlight high and low beam selector
• parking brake selector
• horn, low and high frequency (left/right; green buttons)
• second emergency off button (red)
• direct brake selector

Well, I hope I did not miss or misidentify anything!

 

And now let us have a look at the model proper .

 

 

 

The Jägerndorfer 1822 captures the look and feel of this remarkably good-looking engine very well indeed - this model here being reference 22820 and representing engine 1822 003 as she appeared from about 2000 onwards. The 1822 could be said to represent a design family found on four ÖBB classes introduced from about the early 1990s onwards - the other classes being the 1012 (which, had it been successful, would have filled the place which was eventually taken by the Taurus), 1014 and the class 1163 shunter. In any case, these classes were widely praised for their aesthetic appearance, with the 1012 and 1014 having been awarded the Brunel Award. Externally, the 1822 is quite similar to the 1014, but can be easily distinguished by the odd number of pantographs. Also, the 1014 is shorter, measuring only 17.5 metres.

 

 

 

 

Lateral view at the Cab 1 end. The yaw dampers between the bogies and the frame were not originally present on these engines, having been refitted at some point in the late 90s, I believe it was. Interestingly, the Indusi transceivers are not attached to the bogies, but to the frame itself - the bottom of the electrics box seen to the left of the bogie, to be exact - , as is the case on various Austrian engines. Also note the gridded braking rheostats on the roof.

 

 

 

 

This, of course, is the Cab 2 end - note how the cab doors are located on the left side only. As has long been the case on Austrian locomotives, the braking weights are inscribed on the body side rather than on the frame, as would have been the case on a German engine. The inscriptions read as follows - from top to bottom:

 

• Service weight: 83 tonnes
• Braking weights: R+E 126 tonnes, P+E 100 tonnes, R 92 tonnes, P 72 tonnes, G 55 tonnes, handbrake 24 tonnes
• Braking equipment: Unified Knorr brake with settings G, P and R, direct brake and electrodynamic brake - written out as KEn-GPR+Z+E
• Depot allocation: Innsbruck
• ECP equipment available

The inscription on the frame designates this engine as being subject to cross-border leasing, naming First Security Bank from the United States and Hollandsche Bank-Unie as pledgees.

 

 

 

 

And a look at the front. Note the small, single light between the right-hand headlight unit and the small central grille - this light is green and serves to mark unscheduled trains under Italian regulations. Engine 1822 003 was accepted by the ÖBB on 1 September 1993, having been completed in 1991 by SGP and ABB, carrying the works number 80512.

 

 

 

 

I was quite amazed to see that the roofside equipment really does not require any enhancement on this model! Far as I can tell, all conduits, busbars, insulators and whatever else there is are coloured correctly. I also much like the delicate protective grids across the rheostats. Also note the Italian DC pantographs being located on the outside, with the Austrian AC pan being located towards the centre of the engine above Cab 2. The pantographs are easily up to Roco standards, in my opinion.

 

 

And these are the 1822's technical data...

 

Length 19.30 m

Width 3.02 m

Height 4.22 m

Wheel arrangement Bo'Bo'

Power output 4,400 kW/5,984 hp

Initial tractive effort 280 kN

Service weight 83 tonnes

Top speed 140 kph

 

 

 

Well - this model is well worth getting if you're either into Austrian engines as a whole, or oddballs in particular!

 

Hope you enjoyed this little article!

[Taigatrommel]

Fantastic looking loco. Stylish, yet still functional looking. Looks like it could do 200kph and pull like... well, a train.

[NGT6 1315]

Fantastic looking loco. Stylish, yet still functional looking. Looks like it could do 200kph and pull like... well, a train.

 

 

I believe the designers would have been happy, had it been able to! The 1014 which I also mentioned in this article was faster, with a top speed of 175 kph, but was hampered by being too light - even after having been ballasted to 74 tonnes rather than the previous 66. As such, it could only handle light to medium trains with any sufficient degree of performance.

[Guest Goedel]

Fabulous review 1216 025, I can't wait for part two. It's an excellent looking locomotive, although I think class 1012 is still the best ever designed! The huge size of the Pflatsch is fabulous too (bigger than mine!), it works very well with the red/white/grey livery. The only thing missing from your review is the recommended retail price?

[NGT6 1315]

Well, part 2 would be this piece about Roco's class 1144: An Ubiquitous Workhorse. As for the RRP - you're right: I paid some 213 € for this one. Jägerndorfer also offer one variant representing the original appearance of this class in the early 90s with reference number 20820, and one in PTKiGK livery with reference 23820. All variants are also available for the Märklin AC system.