With the release of GE’s 5000th GEVO, I was wondering what diesel locomotive series has been the most popular and how many examples were produced? Seems to me it would be the F series, SD40s, or Evolution Series. Anyone know?
We’re going to have to agree on the definition of a locomotive series. The Evolution (GEVO) line consists of at least four domestic models plus various export models. The EMD 40 line started with nine models (GP/SD38, GP/SD/SDP40, SD/SDP45, SW1000/1500) and carried over into the various Dash-2 models. Alco’s Century line, although not in the running as a production champ, also consisted of several models.
It is almost certainly not a US built locomotive.
I think the Soviet era TE 10 series was built in numbers around 25 000 or more.
These were built continuously from the 1960s until the end of the Soviet Union in 1990.
These had a Fairbanks Morse Opposed Piston engine, a ten cylinder unit fitted with a turbocharger, rated at 3000 HP.
Later versions had a more modern truck design but they were clearly a single design.
M636C
For North America (US, Canada and Mexico)
GP9s 3969
GP7s 1297
F3 1573
F7 3974
F9 332
FP7 248
FP9 82
FL9 60
SD40 (and variants) 965
SD40-2 (and variants) 4272
Which is larger depends on how you define the groupings.
And it is hard to compare apples and bananas. It took a couple of decades to satisfy the conversion from steam with constant new and improved models sometimes monthly plux S ecnomic conditions.
I realise that I misled the forum with my earlier post:
2TE10V 3665, built in 1977 was the 25 000th locomotive built at Lugansk.
Only about 7 000 of those would have been TE10 type by that date.
But I’ve tried two sources, Wikipedia (in English) and the book Soviet Locomotive Types which give similar but slightly different totals (partly because Wikipedia only listed twin units, not triple or four unit sets.
But we get between 16 000 and 19 000 which must be a good claim to the most produced diesel locomotive at least to date.
M636C
TE10 Locomotive totals
Wiki SLT
2ТЭ10 (ТЭ12) 19 38
2ТЭ10Л 3192 6384 7066
2ТЭ10В 1898 3796 3114
3ТЭ10В &nbs
We have assumed it is the number of units. If instead we use the metric of how many horsepower of each series has been produced then a different model may appear. GP-7 1500 HP; SD-40 3000 HP, ES-44 4400 HP etc. Number of units determined by how much HP needed.
Calculating the power multiplied by the number of units isn’t a particularly useful measure but it is simpler than trying to work out the relative haulage power.
So
5000 x 4390 = 21 950 000 for all the Evolution series
18363 x 3000 = 55 890 000 for all the TE10 type
to add another Russian type, the TE3…
there were 6803 twin units of 2000 HP each
13606 x 2000 = 27 212 000 for all the TE3 type
But I’m not sure what that proves…?
M636C
There are a number of other large locomotive classes in Russia and former Eastern Bloc countries but one that deserves particular attention is the type M62, originally intended for export to Eastern Bloc countries, initially Hungary (M62 being the Hungarian classification).
Reliable sources give the number of individual M62 units as 6813 which clearly places it in the league of large production runs. The original customers were Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, North Korea, Cuba and Mongolia. However a large number were built for use in the Soviet Union itself, including locomotives used for mobile guided missile trains and at the Baikonur space complex.
Unlike the TE3 and TE10 classes that use versions of the Fairbanks Morse 38D8-1/8 engine, the M62 used an engine that was clearly based on the Winton and EMD two stroke designs but appears to be a redesign using the operational principles rather than a copy, and optimised for construction using technologies familiar in the USSR.
The Kolomna 14D40 Diesel Engine
It is well known that the Soviet Union adopted the Alco 539 and the Fairbanks Morse 38D8-1/8 diesel engines for the TE-1 and TE-3 locomotive types respectively, and built hundreds more of these engines for locomotives than did the American builders. The Czech company CKD built many engines that were generally similar to the Baldwin 606 engine, although slightly smaller in bore and stroke, thousands of which were used in the USSR as well as a number in Czechoslovakia and other Eastern Bloc countries.
But the M62 locomotive, built from 1965, had a two stroke V-12 engine type 14D40 which had many characteristics similar to Winton and EMD two stroke engines, but also significant differences, at least, from the contemporary EMD 645 and 710 engines.
What sources I’ve been able to find are contradictory about the origin of the engine design, and it was said to be originally intended as a submarine engine, and was designed as far bac
Great dissertation M636C! Thanks for posting!
When the USN was looking for new engines for submarines in the early 1930’s, they thought that engines would also be ideal for diesel locomotives. (This was from Friedman’s “US Submarines through 1945” published by the Naval Institute Press.)
- Erik
Indeed, Eugene Kettering in his 1951 ASME paper describing the history of the EMD engines to date suggested that the US Navy had effectively paid for much of the development of the 201 and 201A engines but that some of the Navy requirements caused problems in railroad use, and the 567 was built avoiding some of these restrictions.
I have most of Norman Friedman’s books on US Navy ships (except the one covering PT boats), although I think his “British Carrier Aviation” is the best of his books that I’ve seen so far. I’ve been to a couple of his lectures and he is just as impressive in person. Some years ago I was involved in concept design for the Royal Australian Navy and I found Friedman’s books to be excellent references for those needing an insight into warship design. His “Naval Weapon Systems” has a lot of useful data not found easily elsewhere…
But back to “US Submarines through 1945”. I have page 261 open in front of me. I note that the 248 and 278 engines are shown as having a stroke of 10.5 inches, rather than the 10 inches of the otherwise similar, at least dimensionally, 567 engine. Can anyone confirm this difference?
The Winton12-258 engine used in USS “Argonaut”, with 9.5 inch bore and 12 inch stroke is close to the 14D40 which is about 9-1/16 bore and might be the engine suggested as the origin of the 14D40 design.
I’ve found a cross section diagram of the 14D40 in the 1986 “Janes World Railways” and it shows a lot of similarities to the 567, including the 45 degree vee angle, rather than the 60 degree angle of the 201A engines, ap
Almost as soon as I posted the mention of the Winton 258 engine, I decided to run a Google search, and came up with a couple of surprising things. Firstly, for anyone interested, some pages of Friedman’s “US Submarines through 1945” are available through Google Books, including page 261 with the summary of engines and most of the other pages describing the US Navy’s search for engines in the 1930s. It is certainly worth checking out for anybody after more background on EMD and Fairbanks Morse. Even Alco provided the first turbocharged submarine diesel in the world, a model 540, believed to be a 539 with a welded crankcase to meet Navy shock requirements.
But I also found an article by Preston Cook in which he mentions that the 258 engine was a four stroke engine, and not a two stroke engine (although numbered amongst two stroke engines). Since Preston Cook was the EMD engineer who showed me around La Grange in 1977 and who had a six foot long model of the cruiser USS Atlanta in his sitting room (for which I was told off for identifying as a “Juneau Class”) I’ll take his word for it. So the 258 won’t be related to the 14D40….
I mentioned previously the 11D45 engine in the TEP60 passenger locomotive. There were quite a lot of these, if not by Russian standards, with 1241 single units and 116 twin units built, giving a total 1473 units, certainly successful by American standards while not breaking any records. These locomotives had flexible drive and frame mounted motors and Alsthom link primary suspension, all quite advanced by Russian standards and ahead of contemporary US passenger diesel locomotives.
I’ll have to check for another serious contender in the numerical stakes…
M636C
The TEM1 and TEM2 Types
I have previously discussed Russian locomotives with copies of Fairbanks Morse engines, which I think probably hold the record for the most numerous single locomotive type, and maybe the second most numerous as well.
I have done some further reading on the D40 and D45 engines which are similar to but not copies of the EMD 567 engine. Interestingly the first diesel locomotive built at Kolomna in 1958 was a single type TE50 with a sixteen cylinder 10D45 rated at 3000 HP. This was about eight years before EMD engines (admittedly of lower displacement) reached that power rating. The 11D45 engine in the TEP60 passenger locomotives was a development of that type from 1960.
But before any of these, the Russians copied the Alco 539.
Alco built 417 model RS-1 and 150 RSD-1 locomotives between 1941 and 1960.
Seventy Alco RSD-1s were supplied to the Soviet Union during World War II, and these had a dramatic effect on locomotive development in the Soviet Union. One unit, DA20-27 hauled Stalin’s train to the meeting with Churchill and Roosevelt at Potsdam in 1945, the standard track gauge having been adjusted to 1520mm to suit. Reportedly, Stalin spoke to the loco crew about the DA locomotive during a stop during the journey to Potsdam, and he asked if they had enough fuel to get to Berlin and was told, “enough to get there and back”. He asked if it were a Russian locomotive, and was told that it was American built.
There were 300 close copies of the RSD-1 built by Kharkov in 1947-50 as class TE-1, and 528 two unit TE-2 four axle cab units (1056 locomotives) were built using the D50 engine, the Soviet copy of the Alco 539 engine.
But a dedicated switcher version based on the TE-1, the TEM-1, using a longer frame and trucks from the FM engine TE-3 cab unit, but still looking a lot like the original RSD-1 was bui