Russian Railways EP20

The train of this week is a modern electric passenger locomotive from Russia. It's called EP20 and it's the product of a collective effort between Alstom and CJSC Transmashholding, the largest Russian locomotive builder. You may remember this locomotive from recent news, because it's featured in some of the photographs in the articles on the commencing of Talgo sets on the Russian Railways (RZD).

2 EP20 na Rostov Glavny.jpg
"2 EP20 na Rostov Glavny" by Gwinogradow - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Unlike the other European passenger locomotives, the EP20 has six axles, and uses somewhat of an unusual axle arrangement. Instead of using two 3-axle trucks, the EP20 has three 2-axle trucks (i.e. B-B-B). Locomotives like this do exist; they are just rarely seen outside of, say, Japan.

Фирменный поезд "Буревестник".jpg
"Фирменный поезд "Буревестник"" by Айнар - http://www.train-photo.ru/details.php?image_id=142288&mode=search. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.


ЭП20-036.JPG
"ЭП20-036" by Sergey Korovkin 84 - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Anyway, other than the axle arrangement, the EP20 pretty much has everything a quick, modern electric locomotive should have (a more complete list on its Wikipedia page I referred to), and it's supposed to work in really, like REALLY cold temperatures (below -58 degrees F or -50 degrees C). Power output is somewhat of the standard 1 600 hp per axle, which adds up to 9 600 hp for each unit. Top speed in service of the EP20 is 125 mph.

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