Electroputere S.A. (which translates as ''Electropower'' in English) was a

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

n company based in

Craiova Craiova (, also , ) is the largest city in southwestern Romania, List of Romanian cities, the seventh largest city in the country and the capital of Dolj County, situated near the east bank of the river Jiu River, Jiu in central Oltenia. It i ...

. Founded in 1949, it was one of the largest industrial companies in Romania. Electroputere has produced more than 2,400

diesel locomotive A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover (locomotive), power source is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is con ...

s, and 1,050

electric locomotive An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a Battery (electricity), battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime mover (locomotive), ...

s for the Romanian, Bulgarian, Chinese, and Polish railways, additionally producing other urban vehicles and complex equipment.

Products

Electroputere are currently manufactures of: * Industrial electrical parts –

circuit breaker A circuit breaker is an electrical safety device designed to protect an Electrical network, electrical circuit from damage caused by current in excess of that which the equipment can safely carry (overcurrent). Its basic function is to interr ...

transformer In electrical engineering, a transformer is a passive component that transfers electrical energy from one electrical circuit to another circuit, or multiple Electrical network, circuits. A varying current in any coil of the transformer produces ...

s etc. * Industrial

electric motor An electric motor is a machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a electromagnetic coil, wire winding to gene ...

s & Converters * Heavy duty power

s *

Railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

and Urban vehicles. They also have divisions specialising in: *

Forging Forging is a manufacturing process involving the shaping of metal using localized compression (physics), compressive forces. The blows are delivered with a hammer (often a power hammer) or a die (manufacturing), die. Forging is often classif ...

and molding metal * Equipment repairing * Tools modernisation.

Electric and diesel-electric locomotives

Export orders

A total of 1,105 locomotives were delivered between 1972 and 1991 to railway companies in the following countries: * Bulgaria * China * Greece * Iran * Poland * United Kingdom * Yugoslavia One of its more notable foreign orders was for the Class 56 locomotives for

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...

. The 30 locomotives were outsourced to Electroputere because

Brush Traction Brush Traction was a manufacturer and maintainer of railway locomotives in Loughborough, England whose operations have now been merged into the Wabtec company's Doncaster UK operations. History Hughes' Locomotive & Tramway Engine Wor ...

could not build them at its own plant; however, upon their arrival in the UK, the machines were deemed to be unsuitable for use, as they suffered from poor construction standards, and had to be withdrawn and extensively rebuilt. (However, they were seen as being perfectly reasonable for use in Romania by the Romanian crews who tested them)."'The Locos that Came in From the Cold" ''

The Railway Magazine ''The Railway Magazine'' is a monthly United Kingdom, British railway magazine, aimed at the Railfan, railway enthusiast market, that has been published in London since July 1897. it was, for three years running, the railway magazine with the ...

'' (December 2000/January 2001 issues) In 1955–1959, Electroputere produced the V54 tram, which was delivered to the cities of Bucharest, Timișoara and Oradea. Unmodified examples ran up to 1989, whilst the largest number of examples ran in Bucharest, serving as the backbone of the city's network in the 1960s (they were later modernized in 1976–1982, and ran up to June 2000). Aside from this, Electroputere modernized multiple V3A trams between 1997 and 2002, with the first three of them receiving Holec (Holland Electric) equipment. Between 1994 and 1996, Electroputere and FAUR modernized multiple Astra IVA sets for operation on the M2 line of the Bucharest Metro, the project eventually failed and the blue IVA sets never entered service. The most important railway locomotives, as classed by the Romanian railway factory nomenclature were the LDE 2100, LE 5100 and LDE 3000/4000, which were mainly delivered to the Romanian Railways, and a few foreign customers. Apart from the latter, which were withdrawn in the mid-1990s and early-2000s due to their uneconomical nature and increased fuel consumption, the LDE 2100 and LE 5100 form the backbone of the Romanian Railways network.

Photo Gallery

File:Electroputere V54 on Pantelimon Avenue.jpg, 1954: The first major order for Electroputere occurs when the V54 is produced for the Bucharest tram network, entering service in January 1955. File:CFR DA 853 at Constanta.jpg, 1959: LDE 2100 locomotive (produced under licence from SLM, Sulzer, Oerlikon, BBC). File:ST43-214 (25096278918).jpg, 1965: Electroputere begins delivering its first export (diesel) locomotives to Poland (PKP ST43). File:Bușteni-train-station2008g.jpg, 1967: LE 5100 locomotive (produced under licence from ASEA and NOHAB). File:J26 034 Bw Požega, 461 013.jpg, 1971: First exports of electric locomotives begin, with the JŽ 461 locomotives being delivered to Yugoslavia, for use on the Belgrade-Bar rail line. File:China Railways ND2 0221.jpg, 1972: China becomes an important customer for Electroputere, when it orders 284 locomotives based on the LDE 2100 design, known as the ND2. File:CFR Calatori LE3400.jpg, 1973: Electroputere Craiova and UCM Reșita sign an agreement to produce the LE 3400, the local variant of the JŽ 441 produced by Rade Končar and MIN Niš. File:Adasdfafafa.jpg, 1975: Electroputere develops the LDE 3000 and LDE 4000 locomotives, using American-built ALCO engines built at UCM Reșita. Pictured here is a 1982-built LDE 4000 operating for the Greek Railways at Athens. File:Hugh llewelyn 56 006 (5555972314).jpg, 1976: In the most important order at that time, Electroputere delivers 30 LDE 3500 locomotives, known as the BR Class 56. File:Bucharest V3A tram 7.jpg, 1997: Along with FAUR, Electroputere is invited in the V3A modernization programme, modernizing 13 trams, 10 using home-made equipment.

References

External links