The Kanghaenggun-class ( ko, 강행군, "Forced March") is a class of

electric locomotives An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime movers, such as diesel engines or gas ...

for freight trains operated by the

Korean State Railway The Korean State Railway (), commonly called the State Rail () is the operating arm of the Ministry of Railways of North Korea and has its headquarters at P'yŏngyang. The current Minister of Railways is Chang Jun Song. History 1945–195 ...

on mainlines, especially the important

P'yŏngŭi Line The P'yŏngŭi Line is an electrified main trunk line of the Korean State Railway of North Korea, running from P'yŏngyang to Sinŭiju on the border with China.Kokubu, Hayato, 将軍様の鉄道 (Shōgun-sama no Tetsudō), It is the main co ...

. They were converted to 3,000 V DC electric operation by the

Kim Chong-t'ae Electric Locomotive Works The Kim Chong-t'ae Electric Locomotive Works () in P'yŏngyang is North Korea's largest manufacturer of railway equipment. Established in November 1945 in Sŏsŏng-guyŏk, P'yŏngyang near the P'yŏngyang Railway University and the Korean Stat ...

from

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

-built K62-class

diesel locomotive A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving whe ...

s. A similar projects have been undertaken by the

Azerbaijan Railways Azerbaijan Railways ( az, Azərbaycan Dəmir Yolları) is the national state-owned rail transport operator in the Republic of Azerbaijan. The , gauge network is electrified at 3 kV (3,000 V) DC. The headquarters of the Azerbai ...

, who have converted one 2-section 2

M62 locomotive The M62 is a Soviet-built diesel locomotive for heavy freight trains, exported to many Eastern Bloc countries as well as to Cuba, North Korea and Mongolia. Beside the single locomotive M62 also twin versions 2M62 and three-section versions 3M62 hav ...

to electric operation as well, using parts from a

VL8 The VL8 (russian: ВЛ8)is an electric two-unit mainline DC freight locomotive used in the Soviet Union, still operated today by the state-owned Russian rail company RZhD and Ukrainian Railways. The initials ''VL'' are those of Vladimir Leni ...

electric locomotive, and by a Polish train operating company , a subsidiary of

Rail World Rail World is a rail transport holding company. Its specialties include railway management, consulting, investment, privatizations, and restructurings. Its purpose is to promote rail industry privatization by bringing together government bodies ...

, who used a bespoke electric equipment.

Description

Through the 1990s,

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and ...

suffered through a severe economic crisis, made worse by severe floods in 1995 and 1996, and a drought in 1997. This period is known as the " Arduous March" or "Forced March"; the class derives its name from this. The economic crisis also made obtaining diesel fuel extremely difficult, so the Korean State Railways decided to convert a number of diesel locomotives to electric operation, as intensive efforts have been made to restore as much generation of electricity as possible, with fair success over the past years. As a result, in 1998 the Kim Chong-t'ae works began a program to convert the more decrepit M62-type diesels in the KSR's inventory to electric operation. This was achieved by removing the diesel engine, fuel tanks and other unneeded equipment, and the installation of the necessary transformers and related gear to convert the power collected from the overhead lines, via newly-installed pantographs, to the traction motors. The resulting unit is considerably lighter than the diesel version, and sound like oversized streetcars. Like the original diesels, these produce , making suitable for the same services as the diesels. At least 21 Kanghaenggun-class locomotives have been rebuilt so far, numbered 강행군1.5-01 through 강행군1.5-21 (1.5 refers to

1 May Events Pre-1600 * 305 – Diocletian and Maximian retire from the office of Roman emperor. * 880 – The Nea Ekklesia is inaugurated in Constantinople, setting the model for all later cross-in-square Orthodox churches. * 1169 &ndas ...

International Workers' Day International Workers' Day, also known as Labour Day in some countries and often referred to as May Day, is a celebration of labourers and the working classes that is promoted by the international labour movement and occurs every year on 1 May ...

). The previous identity of one unit is known - 1.5-13 was rebuilt from the former 632. In addition to the units numbered in the 1.5-xx range, two others of this class have been noted, numbered 309 (painted dark green and white) and 399 (dark blue and white), which are distinctly different from the 1.5-series. Unlike those, which were rebuilt from original Soviet-built M62s, the bodies of these have all the distinctive features of the Kŭmsong-class, domestically built copies of the M62.

References

{{DPRKloco Locomotives of North Korea Kim Chong-tae Works locomotives 3000 V DC locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1998 Co′Co′ locomotives