The Tale of the TRAXXes continues

[NGT6 1315]

Hello,

 

for those of you who remember my presentation of several ACME H0 scale Bombardier TRAXX locomotives last summer this little presentation will most likely be familiar . However, the TRAXX I am going to showcase now is a bit different from those you already know.

 

Actually, the model in question is not even distributed by ACME proper, but under the Electrotren label - this company now being the Spanish branch of Hornby International. And, as Electrotren, who are headquartered in Alcal?? de Henares near Madrid, produce a (in my opinion) interesting range of Spanish outline models of usually good quality, today's model is a Spanish piece of motive power as well . But as usual I should like to begin with a bit of history!

 

After the Spanish Civil War the various private railways which had grown in various regions of the country were no longer in a position to survive on their own - these being the Compañía de los Caminos de Hierro del Norte de España (North Spanish Railway Company, or just "NORTE"), Compañía de los Ferrocarriles de Madrid a Zaragoza y Alicante (Madrid-Zaragoza-Alicante Railway Company or MZA), Compañía Nacional de los Ferrocarriles del Oeste (Western National Railway Company) and Compañía de los Ferrocarriles Andaluces (Andalusian Railway Company). Therefore, in 1941 they were all nationalized and unified under the new name RENFE, which means "Red Nacional de los Ferrocarriles Españoles" or "National Network of the Spanish Railways."

In 2005, then, the old RENFE was split into an operations branch and an infrastructure branch in order to conform with EU railway business rules - the operations branch henceforth being known simply as "Renfe Operadora" (and no longer spelt in all capital letters) and the infrastructure branch as ADIF (Administrador de Infraestructuras Ferroviarias; Railway Infrastructure Administration).

Also, Renfe Operadora consists of the following sections:

 

* Dirección General de Servicios Públicos de Cercanías y Media Distancia: Public Service General Directorate of Local and Regional Passenger Operations;

* D.G.S.P. de Larga Distancia: Long-Distance Passenger Operations;

* D.G.S.P. de Mercancías y Logísticas: Goods and Logistics Operations;

* D.G.S.P. de Fabricación y Mantenimiento: Equipment and Permanent Way Construction and Maintenance, also known as "Integria".

 

In 2007 the Spanish railway network comprised 11,757 km of 1,668 mm broad gauge track, 1,543 km of standard gauge track and 18 km of metre gauge track. The broad gauge network is electrified with 3 kV DC, whereas the standard gauge high speed network has 25 kV/50 Hz AC.

 

Now, back in November 2006 Renfe placed an order for 100 TRAXX type locomotives with Bombardier, derived from the new TRAXX F140 DC product line. These were meant for goods operations only and therefore were specified not to be fitted with ETS. Obviously, the new engines also needed to be fitted with 1,668 mm broad gauge bogies. Aside from that, Renfe specified a number of additional variations from the standard TRAXX 2E design, which I will illustrate while describing the following images .

 

 

 

Renfe chose to designate its new TRAXX type engines as class 253. Technically speaking, it is related to the class E483 engine which is still being built for several Italian TOCs, but - as I said - has a number of differences. The 253 also wears Renfe's current "Operadora" livery of white, dark grey and magenta, which I think looks quite friendly and nice - the body sides being all grey on goods engines and inscribed with the "Mercancías" brand, which of course simply means "goods". Electrotren's model is available in three versions: standard DC with reference number 3700, DC with factory-fitted DCC decoder as reference 3700D and AC (Märklin system) with factory-fitted DCC decoder as reference 3701.

 

 

Please allow me to post a photo of an E483 for comparison:

 

 

 

 

One of the more obvious external differences would be the additional air conditioning units placed on top of the cab roofs on the 253. The cabs on all TRAXX engines are air conditioned anyway, but Renfe felt additional A/C capacities would be needed for the climate of the Iberian peninsula.

 

 

 

Looking at the front reveals yet another difference between the normal TRAXX and the Spanish one - this being the placement of the centre headlight unit above the windshield rather than below. In addition, Renfe chose to have a different type of lower headlights fitted to its 253s in the meantime, which are lacking the high beam lens on the inside - the high beam function being included in the centre unit above the windshield. Far as I know, those 253s which were not yet fitted with the revised lower headlights at the factory will have them refitted eventually.

 

The first 55 253s were assembled at Bombardier's Italian locomotive factory in Vado Ligure near Savona, with the remaining 45 units being scheduled for assembly at the Villaverde plant near Madrid. After completion, engine 253.001, as represented by Electrotren's model, was initially put on standard gauge bogies and underwent initial trials at the German Siemens test circuit at Wegberg-Wildenrath near the Dutch border. Eventually, engines 253.001 and 002 were transferred to Spain, refitted with broad gauge bogies and continued their trials in the Madrid area.

 

The 253 has a power output of 5,600 kW and an initial tractive effort of 300 kN, with the top speed being 140 kph/87 mph. It is fitted with the ASFA train protection system - meaning "Anuncio de Señales y Frenado Automático", or "Signal Announcement and Automatic Braking." The system is based on trackside balises containing RLC circuits which can be tuned to five specific frequencies.

 

 

 

Lateral view on the Cab 1 side. Again, note the A/C unit on the cab roof. As rear view mirrors for the driver are required in Spain, but could not be easily fitted into the TRAXX design, the 253 is fitted with rear view cameras, much as those TRAXX engines certified for Switzerland. As per the inscriptions on the frame, the 253 can negotiate curves with a 100 metre radius and is certified for Spain only. The overall length is inscribed as 18.9 metres and the distance between the traction bar pivots is 10.44 metres. However, as I was told the engine number halfway down the engine side is formatted according to the old UIC rules, which means the "95" prefix does not designate it as being a DMU, as it would under the revised UIC numbering scheme. 71 is the country code for Spain.

 

 

 

And the Cab 2 side where the inscriptions mention the following items: High performance brake according to UIC norms, Knorr-Einheitsbremse with settings G, P and R, electric brake and direct brake valve; disk brakes; total weight of 87 tonnes; braking weights: R 132 tonnes, P 92 tonnes and G 75 tonnes, and 46 tonnes for the arresting brake. The revision grid is not filled out, but the engine was accepted by Renfe on 20 January 2009.

 

Also note that the body walls are fully smooth on the 253, whereas the standard TRAXX 2E design has these split into three sections - the second of which is removed on the diesel-electric variants and replaced by an air intake.

 

 

 

Looking down at the roof - the pantographs are not quite as fine around the heads as those from Roco, but good enough. The busbar is split around the centre of the roof, which I believe means that the pantographs are electrically separated even without the need for a disconnector.

 

 

Electrotren's H0 scale models are, of course, built to the normal 16.5 mm gauge for that scale - actually, my purchase of this model was the reason why I recently asked about regauging model railway stock. I'll need to have a close look at it and thoroughly think about the feasibility of this kind of modification, though.

 

 

Alright - I hope you could make some use of this little presentation . I bought the model from a Spanish retailer called Gotthard Trens in Barcelona who was happy to ship it to me by mail and whom I can fully recommend if you should be looking for Spanish outline models - which can be difficult to get outside Spain.

[NGT6 1315]

A little addition on my part - first of all, I apologize for any cryptic characters - apparently the forum software still has the reported issues with certain characters, such as accents and the n with tilde (which I cannot even spell out as required as its name contains that same character ).

In addition, I forgot to mention that the 253's body is also lacking the recess for the fuel filler cap halfway down the frame which is present on all other TRAXX 2E types as the same body is used for electrics and diesel-electrics.

 

And some Youtube videos of 253s in action: