RSS Fetcher Posted November 24, 2013 Share Posted November 24, 2013 And hello once again! Today, I should like to showcase one specific loco from the Siemens ES 64 U4 product line which I'm sure rather stands out from the crowd! As usual for Siemens locomotives, I should like to point you to my blog entry, "Eurosprinteristics" for looking up general background information and technical specifications. Between 2005 and 2009, the Slovenian State Railways – Slovenske železnice – obtained a fleet of 32 ES 64 U4 type electrics, designated class 541 and split into two batches of differently configured locomotives: 541.001 through 022 were procured between June 2006 and May 2007 as well as April and September 2009, and are configured as VB2 type locos with running rights in Slovenia, Croatia, Austria and Germany, 541.101 through 110 were obtained between June 2006 and May 2007 along with the first lot of the 541.0 type, and are configured as VF type locomotives which have running rights in Slovenia, Croatia, Italy, Hungary, Austria and Germany as well as the Czech Republic and Slovakia. On long-distance freight workings, the 541s can be regularly seen in the southern half of Germany and in Austria, as well as on certain cross-border passenger services to destinations in Austria. Also, they are often set up in mixed pairs with ÖBB motive power. Like ÖBB have been doing with their Taurus fleet for several years, SŽ have since adopted the practice of having full body advertising and commemorative liveries applied to their 541s. One of the more recent examples is the advertising livery currently worn by 541.001, which when looking at the following set of photos I'm sure you will agree is rather eye-catching... This design is actually the third promotional livery applied to 541.001. Having promoted the Alpine Convention and the Austro-Bavarian Cultural Heritage Exhibition of 2012 previously, the loco is now advertising for Neapolitan wafers as produced by the Josef Manner & Comp. enterprise of Austria. I understand these wafers are something of a cult in Austria, and marketed with the slogan, "You just like it," or "Manner mag man eben" in German. I myself did have to get used to the idea of using pink as a principal colour on railway stock, but eventually came to rather liking this design! This specific locomotive is offered in H0 scale by Roco with catalogue number 73500, and by RailAd, who developed their own ES 64 U4 model. As I'm quite satisfied with the RTS 1216 I already have, I chose the Roco version. As far as tooling and mechanics are concerned, I am having the impression that modellers rate both models to be fundamentally sound, but do seem to notice that RailAd's printing and paintwork are more frequently criticised. The paintwork quality on Roco's model gives a suitable representation of a livery which in my opinion would be a challenge for most any producer of railway models. Here, we are looking at the Cab 1 end of 541.001. As per the technical inscriptions, the loco had its acceptance revision on 28 July 2006. It is interesting to note that the Slovenian Railways specified their 541s to not be equipped with sanding units on the inner bogie ends, which did surprise me greatly and had me double- and triple-check as many photos of these locos as reasonably possible! As Roco did not produce specific bogie frame mouldings for the 541, I clipped off the sanding nozzles at the inner end to at least come close to the appearance of the 541's bogies. The braking weights table is written out on the Cab 2 end, specifying the following data: R+E160180 t R+E 165 t P+E 124 t R 111 t P 100 t G 80 t Arresting brakes: 38 t Further indications on this end specify that the loco has a minimum curve radius of 90 metres, minimum hump radius of 250 metres, and per the certification grid currently has running rights in Slovenia, Austria and Germany. The locomotive's advertising livery mandated that the frontside markings of 541.001 needed to be placed above the windscreens. The model's chassis is equipped with coupler extension mechanisms on either end, and two sets of snow ploughs are provided – one pair, of course, with the usual cut-outs for the coupler pockets. The ploughs are attached to the model's running frame proper, as opposed to Roco's TRAXX locos where they are attached to the bogies. In addition to a modified sanding unit package, the Slovenian 541s have a customised pantograph configuration, too. The inner pans on positions 2 and 3 are DC pantographs with 1,450 mm heads to match the Slovenian and Italian 3 kV DC OHLE. The #1 pan, to the right in this photo, is the 1,950 mm AC pan for Austria and Germany, while the #4 pan on the far end of the loco is equipped with a 1,450 mm head and intended for the Croatian 25 kV AC OHLE. Thanks for reading and have a good evening! View the full article Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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