New 5500 HP EMD locomotives for India (WDG5)

[MEC407]

Photos of the WDG5 are now online. Surprisingly small fuel tank (roughly 2000 U.S. gallons). Radiator looks like it would be right at home on a Dash 9.

http://www.irfca.org/gallery/openline/WDG5/

[Steve F45]

impressive bathroom in that loco and trucks look similar to ge's. Are those specifically for foreign units?

[MEC407]

I wouldn't be too impressed with the bathroom if I had to go #2 (or if I was a female)!

[Allen Hazen]

Steve F45--
The trucks have a primary suspension reminiscent of the "roller blades" trucks used on Dash-9 and later GE locomotives, but otherwise don't look EXACTLY like GE trucks. (The basic design, I think, comes from Germany-- perhaps from Krupp, who have been license builders of GE locomotives, and from whom GE got the idea for the trucks used on Genesis passenger units. SOMEWHERE I think I have a bit more information about the history of this sort of truck design, but I'm not sure I'll be able to find it immediately.)

It looks to me like a fabricated (welded) truck frame rather than a cast one: welded frame trucks are often lighter than castings, so used when permissible axl loading is lower than in North America. (Keeping the weight down is surely also the motive for the 2000 gallon fuel tank!) GE has used a welded-frame version of the "roller blade" trucks on units built for non-NorthAmerican railroads (e.g. the Australian NR class, or the "boxcar" units built for the high altitude railway to Tibet), but these are a bit different.

(Pity Varanasi doesn't put data like weight on the builder's plate!)

[JayBee]

Steve F45--
The trucks have a primary suspension reminiscent of the "roller blades" trucks used on Dash-9 and later GE locomotives, but otherwise don't look EXACTLY like GE trucks. (The basic design, I think, comes from Germany-- perhaps from Krupp, who have been license builders of GE locomotives, and from whom GE got the idea for the trucks used on Genesis passenger units. SOMEWHERE I think I have a bit more information about the history of this sort of truck design, but I'm not sure I'll be able to find it immediately.)

It looks to me like a fabricated (welded) truck frame rather than a cast one: welded frame trucks are often lighter than castings, so used when permissible axl loading is lower than in North America. (Keeping the weight down is surely also the motive for the 2000 gallon fuel tank!) GE has used a welded-frame version of the "roller blade" trucks on units built for non-NorthAmerican railroads (e.g. the Australian NR class, or the "boxcar" units built for the high altitude railway to Tibet), but these are a bit different.

(Pity Varanasi doesn't put data like weight on the builder's plate!)

The trucks look a lot like the trucks that Vossloh España used on their Euro 4000 locomotives.
http://www.railcolor.net/index.php?nav= ... tion=image

[renrut44]

To understand these locomotives, you have to have a handle in India, and Indian Railways

Forget any conceptions that North American readers may have of Railroad Companies

Indian Railways is a Government Department, run at the whim of the Minister for overtly political purpose, and personal and Party advantage
It is therefor grossly overstaffed, it is in the financial interest of line managers to increase their headcount, this enhances their status and renumeration

Needless to say it runs at a humungous loss, and is highly passenger centric

It exercises a total monopoly, and manufactures its own locomotives and rollingstock in house

So there are a number of ancillary mini empires, manufacturing, research, construction, civil engineering, consulting services, etc. Bit like the Soviet Railways in it's heyday

Indian Railways moves extremely slowly, and is totally risk averse in the best civil service tradition, total proof of the veracity of Parkinson's Law. In the case of the WDG5, RSDO had to re-invent the wheel, and has messed around with the design for years

RSDO's current projects http://www.rdso.indianrailways.gov.in/u ... urrent.pdf

Extract from RSDO 2009/10 Annual Report http://www.rdso.indianrailways.gov.in/u ... 0Power.pdf
Note that the WDG3A refered to in this extract is an ALCo

List of DLW's EMD license production http://www.dlw.indianrailways.gov.in/vi ... =0,294,481
That is 735 Indian built EMD's, add that to the total built in Australia, and you can see why EMD survived in the lean years

Only the single WDG5 is listed

There were a number of WDG-5 photos on the IRFCA site, but these have been taken down
http://www.irfca.org/gallery/openline/wdg-5.JPG.html

[prakash]

SD80ACe in India is known as WDG5. Feel free to check http://trainweb.org/railworld/WDG5/