The Blue Tiger (manufacturer designation: DE-AC33C) is a type of high powered diesel-electric locomotive developed by ADtranz in association with General Electric.

History and design

The

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...

was unveiled in 1996. Initially the axle load was expected to be a light and the power at ~. In practice, the German locomotives had an axle load of (which is normal for this type of diesel locomotive). General Electric supplied

diesel engines The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-calle ...

and electrical transmission system (which used

IGBT An insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) is a three-terminal power semiconductor device primarily used as an electronic switch, which, as it was developed, came to combine high efficiency and fast switching. It consists of four alternating lay ...

-based inverters driving AC traction motors). The rest of the locomotive was built by AdTranz in

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...

. For the Pakistani export models a 16-cylinder engine was used. Bombardier took over AdTranz in 2001, subsequently the Blue Tiger locomotive was shown at InnoTrans in 2002 with a view to European orders. The German production models had a mass of (axle load ) and an engine power of . As of 2009, the class is no longer listed as a production model by Bombardier; GE also lists the family as a former production type. For the European market, Bombardier produces the less powerful diesel variants of the TRAXX family, whilst GE offers variants of its Evolution series for export.

Operators

Pakistan

The first orders for the locomotives came from Pakistan Railways in the late 1990s. The locomotives were being built to a gauge of and powered by a 16-cylinder engine of instead of the 12-cylinder engine used in the prototype and other production models. The first ten were shipped out, the remainder assembled under license in Pakistan. Pakistan Locomotive Series Start From 6001 to 6030.

Malaysia

Twenty locomotives were built to gauge in 2003–2004 for KTM.26 Class / Blue Tiger
''keratapi.com'' They were designated as " Class 26" (Numbers: 26101 – 26120). All the locomotives were named after capes in Malaysia. In the first decade of operations the locomotives proved more reliable than the Malaysian Class 29 locomotives bought at around the same time.

Germany

10 Locomotives were built to gauge with a view to leasing or orders. Various companies have used the locomotives. Initially ''Karsdorfer Eisenbahngesellschaft GmbH'' (KEG)Bombardier: Eight Blue Tiger Locomotives Soon To Be In Service For Karsdorfer Eisenbahn (Bombardier press release)
''canadair.ca'' was to use 8 units, but went bankrupt in 2005. In 2006, the distribution was:
'Blue Tiger' operator list ''privat-bahn.de'' *''

Osthannoversche Eisenbahnen The Osthannoversche Eisenbahnen AG (OHE) is a Celle based transportation company with railway network in North-eastern Lower Saxony around the Lüneburg Heath area of over 250 km. The OHE's main business is the transportation of freight ...

'' (5 units including the prototype) *'' ITL Eisenbahngesellschaft'' (Import Transport Logistik) (2 units) *'' Havelländische Eisenbahnen AG'' (4 units)

Models

A working scale model of this locomotive has been produced by the Slovenian company

Mehano Mehano is a Slovenian toy company from Izola, founded in 1952 as Mehanotehnika. It produces a large range of both traditional and electronic toys, as well as model railroad equipment. The company has borne its current name of Mehano since 1990. Me ...

in N, TT and HO scale.

References

External links

Blue Tiger images (Europe)
''railfaneurope.net''
Bombardier FLEXXX Bogies
FLEXX Power 120 type used in Blue Tiger locomotives {{DEFAULTSORT:Blue Tiger (Locomotive) Co′Co′ locomotives Co-Co locomotives Adtranz locomotives Keretapi Tanah Melayu Diesel-electric locomotives of Malaysia Diesel-electric locomotives of Pakistan Railway locomotives introduced in 1996 Diesel-electric locomotives of Germany