The Prima Diesel-electric locomotives are a class of medium and heavy, four- and six-axle, passenger and freight mainline locomotives. They have been built both to standard and broad gauges, and find use in the Middle East, Europe and North America.

Alstom Alstom SA is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer operating worldwide in rail transport markets, active in the fields of passenger transportation, signalling, and locomotives, with products including the AGV, TGV, Eurostar, Av ...

is the primary designer in cooperation with both General Motors (now EMD) and Siemens.

History

Initially the Prima locomotives were electric only, with the technology demonstrator and test platform being built in 2002Prima platform: electrical locomotives. Railcolor.net
/ref> in

Belfort Belfort (; archaic german: Beffert/Beffort) is a city in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in Northeastern France, situated between Lyon and Strasbourg, approximately from the France–Switzerland border. It is the prefecture of the Terr ...

France by Alstom. Next came the Prima 6000 technology demonstrator; this too was an electric locomotive, with 6000 kW of power and primarily intended to test and demonstrate multi-voltage operations for European cross-border operations.Alstom Prima 6000 Demonstrator: Introduction. Railcolor.net
/ref> Orders for the Prima electrics came, mostly from SNCF. A series of diesel locomotives also associated with the Prima name were also built. These were the General Motors (GM)-engined machines built by Alstom at its Spanish plant in Valencia, and

Ruston Ruston may refer to: Place names ;United States * Ruston, Louisiana * Ruston, Washington ;United Kingdom * East Ruston, Norfolk, England * Ruston, North Yorkshire, England * Ruston Parva, East Riding of Yorkshire, England Companies * Ruston (engi ...

-engined locomotives built in Belfort, France. The Valencia plant was sold to

Vossloh Vossloh AG is a rail technology company based in Werdohl in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The SDAX-listed group has achieved sales of around €930 million in 2016 with more than 4,000 employees (as of 2017). Vossloh is a globa ...

in 2004. Locomotives continued to be built there using EMD engines and electrical transmission systems - including almost total rebuilds of the RENFE 333 class. Vossloh changed the names of the products produced there to the "Vossloh Euro" platform (see

Vossloh Euro locomotives The Stadler Euro (known as the Vossloh Euro until 2015) is a class of diesel-electric locomotives built by Stadler Rail for the European market. It is available in two basic variants, the four-axle Euro 3000, and the six-axle Euro 4000. These lo ...

) and the end came of the association of the Valencia plant with the Prima name.Brief description of all Primas except BB75000 : Railcolor.net
Also produced in the 1990s were Prima diesels countries outside Europe. The DE32C was produced for

Chemins de Fer Syriens General Establishment of Syrian Railways ( ar, المؤسسة العامة للخطوط الحديدية, french: Chemins de fer syriens, CFS) is the national railway operator for the state of Syria, subordinate to the Ministry of Transportation ...

in Syria, and Sri Lanka received 10 locomotives which it designated M9 class. A DE43C model was exported to Iran (AD43CAlstom AD43C : Rail.lu
/ref>). Nevertheless, the Euro 3000 and Euro 4000 products produced at Vossloh España continue to show similarities with the earlier Prima products—such as the centrally located driver position with radially located controls, the single drivers window, and general body shape and design of the rigid body shell. Alstom and Siemens collaborated to produce the BB 75000 diesel, which has received orders for at least 400 locomotives from SNCF with a possibility of 100 more. A Siemens/Alstom BB 75000

mock-up In manufacturing and design, a mockup, or mock-up, is a scale or full-size model of a design or device, used for teaching, demonstration, design evaluation, promotion, and other purposes. A mockup may be a '' prototype'' if it provides at lea ...

was unveiled on 25 March 2004,SNCF Fret BB 37000: Introduction. Railcolor.net
/ref> The first locomotive was produced in 2006. In 2008 Alstom unveiled the 'Prima II' platform; diesel versions are to be offered,ALSTOM Transport
, 25 February 2009, via ''conferinte.club-feroviar.ro'' so it is expected that further models of the Prima diesel locomotive family will appear.

Technology

The Prima type locomotives built at Alstom's Valencia plant were engined with General motors engines; in fact the entire power train - engine, generator, electronics and motors were supplied by General Motors for the Valencia built Primas. For the locomotives built in France - primarily those exported outside Europe Ruston engines were used. The Prima diesels for

SNCF Fret SNCF Logistics was the division of the SNCF group responsible for freight transportation and logistics. The division included the activities of: Geodis (and subsidiaries), general land transport and logistics; Fret SNCF the national rail freight ...

used MTU engines. Modern innovations in the Prima class included - a centrally located drivers seat with ergonomically arranged controls, a monocoque rigid bodyshell. The BB 75000 retains the Prima appearance - the single window, drivers position, body design, but the 'innards' are supplied by Siemens, the engine from Caterpiller.

Variants

RENFE 334

These were the last of the Valencia-built Prima locomotives and technically should be considered part of the Vossloh Euro series of locomotives since they came off the production line after 2004. Built for passenger work on non-electrified lines in Spain, and were intended to replace older Class 333s.

References

External links

*{{citation, url=http://www.css-rzd.ru/zdm/10-1998/8300.htm , language=Russian , title=Новые локомотивы компании Alstom , journal=Железные дороги мира , year=1998 , number=10 , url-status=dead , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070504033531/http://www.css-rzd.ru/zdm/10-1998/8300.htm , archivedate=4 May 2007 th:เอแอลดี