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Stadler locos for Uruguay

A NEW rail freight operator planning to operate wood pulp trains in Uruguay has ordered seven Stadler E4001 diesel locos.

The standard gauge 2,800kW six axle locos will be used by logistics group Christophersen to operate freight trains between a new wood pulp mill being built at Paso de los Toros and the port of Montevideo.

The 273km route is part of the former Ferrocarril Central del Uruguay main line which is being renovated; infrastructure work began in 2019 and is due for completion by 2023. The trains are planned to be 475 metres long with one loco and 26 wagons. Loco deliveries should begin in late 2022.

Multiple German freight operators choose Stadler’s six axle Eurodual

STADLER has delivered multiple new‘EuroDual’six axle bi-mode locos to leasing company European Loc Pool (ELP) as well as directly to some freight operators.

The Stadler EuroDual design is a powerful six axle electrodiesel which utilises the 2,800kW Caterpillar C175-16 diesel engine (as used by UK Class 68, although the EuroDual uses the more modern Stage 3B version) in addition to offering 6150kW (power at wheel) as an electric loco. The 126 tonne locos have a starting tractive effort of 500kN (under both diesel and electric power) and a top speed of 120kph (although re-gearing for 160kph would be possible if required).

The three axle bogies are an improved form of those used under the Stadler Euro 4000

CoCo diesel design, using the same wheelsets as originally used for the UK Light/Class 68 and each bogie has three framemounted AC asynchronous traction motors. Stadler designs and builds the‘EuroDual’at its’Albuixech factory near Valencia in Spain, where the UK Class 68/88 were built and future Class 93 locos will be constructed.

Several versions of the EuroDual are being built with the‘standard’loco offered by ELP to German customers being an AC (15kV and 25 kV) electric loco fitted with the diesel engine although the original prototype was an AC/DC dual voltage plus diesel machine; this is now used by VFLI in France. Turkish open access operator Körfez Ulaştırma has ordered seven 25kV AC / diesel locos for delivery in 2021. Körfez Ulaştırma will use the locos to operate 2,000 tonne oil trains in Turkey

Eurodual loco 159 210, leased by ELP to small German operator BSAS EisenbahnVerkehrs at Hohe Schaar in the Hamburg Docks complex on January 9, 2021. BSAS uses its three ‘Euroduals’, all in distinctive liveries, to operate oil trains from Hamburg Docks to Berlin and Kiefersfelden in Bavaria, close to the border with Austria.

NICK PATON