The Soviet locomotive class FD (; ) was a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

main freight

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, Fuel oil, oil or, rarely, Wood fuel, wood) to heat ...

type named after

Felix Dzerzhinsky Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky (; ; – 20 July 1926), nicknamed Iron Felix (), was a Soviet revolutionary and politician of Polish origin. From 1917 until his death in 1926, he led the first two Soviet secret police organizations, the Cheka a ...

(; ). Between 1932 and 1942, 3,213 FD series locomotives were built.

History

The locomotive was created in connection with the industrialization conducted in the USSR. Planning took only 100 days, and typical construction time was 170 days. For certain features the design engineers referred to American practice in steam locomotive design. The first locomotive was built at the October Revolution Locomotive Factory in Luhansk, Ukrainian SSR (

Luhansk Luhansk (, ; , ), also known as Lugansk (, ; , ), is a city in the Donbas in eastern Ukraine. As of 2022, the population was estimated to be making Luhansk the Cities in Ukraine, 12th-largest city in Ukraine. Luhansk served as the administra ...

, Ukraine) in 1931 and sent for a show to

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

Model of Russian Class FD locomotive FD20-2865

Tests, in which the locomotive performed well, were conducted in 1932. That same year, the Luhansk October Revolution plant began mass production of FD20 locomotives. Over the course of production their construction got better steadily. From the beginning of the Great Patriotic war in 1941, production was interrupted only in 1942; four locomotives were built in

Ulan-Ude Ulan-Ude (; , ; , ) is the capital city of Buryatia, Russia, located about southeast of Lake Baikal on the Uda River, Buryatia, Uda River at its confluence with the Selenga River, Selenga. According to the Russian Census (2021), 2021 Census, 43 ...

, Russian SFSR. Total production was 2927 locomotives of FD20 and 286 locomotives of FD21. The two subclasses only differed in the type of

superheater A superheater is a device used to convert saturated steam or wet steam into superheated steam or dry steam. Superheated steam is used in steam turbines for electricity generation, in some steam engines, and in processes such as steam reforming. ...

. The locomotives of FD operated in areas with high turnover of goods. They worked on 23 of 43 railways in the USSR, including in Siberia and in the Urals. From the middle of 1950, in connection with Soviet conversion to diesel and electric locomotives, the locomotives of FD began to be pushed aside from work. Also, in 1958–1960 about 1000 locomotives were transferred to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, as

China Railway China State Railway Group Co., Ltd., doing business as China Railway (CR), is the national passenger and freight railroad corporation of the China, People's Republic of China. China Railway operates passenger and freight Rail transport in Chi ...

class FD; some of these were subsequently transferred from China to

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 Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

, Kokubu, Hayato, 将軍様の鉄道 (Shōgun-sama no Tetsudō), p. 111 where the

Korean State Railway The Korean State Railway is the operating arm of the Ministry of Railways of North Korea (), commonly called the State Rail () and has its headquarters at Pyongyang, P'yŏngyang. The current Minister of Railways is Chang Jun-song. History 19 ...

renumbered them in the 8500 series.

Gallery

File:Parovoz FD21-3125.JPG, Russian locomotive class FD 21-3125 at Moscow Railway Museum at

Rizhsky Rail Terminal Rizhsky station (, ''Rizhsky vokzal'', Riga station) is one of the ten main railway stations in Moscow, Russia. It was built in 1901. As well as being an active station it also houses the Museum of the Moscow Railway (Moscow Rizhsky station), Mos ...

File:Class FD20 Soviet locomotive and Fireless Locomotive No9305 Russian Railway Museum.jpg, Russian locomotive class FD-1103 (on the left of the photo) at the

Russian Railway Museum The Russian Railway Museum is situated next to Baltiysky railway station in Saint Petersburg. The museum was established in 1978, its current site and exhibition opened to public on 1 November 2017. The museum utilizes the nineteenth century ...

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

File:RailwaymuseumSPb-47.jpg, FD 20-1103 at Varshavsky Rail Terminal,

File:Parovoz FD20-2 (1).jpg, FD20-2 File:Parovoz_"Felix_Dzherzinski"_in_Brest_museum.jpg, Locomotive FD20-1237 at Brest Railway Museum File:Parovoz FDk.jpg, FDk condensing steam locomotive File:Teploparovoz TP1.jpg, TP1 Steam diesel hybrid locomotive

References

Notes

Literature

* В.А. Раков. Локомотивы отечественных железных дорог 1845-1955. — 2-е, переработанное и дополненное. — Москва: «Транспорт», 1995 * Справочник по локомотивам железных дорог СССР. Главное управление локомотивного хозяйства МПС. Трансжелдориздат 1956 * Курс паровозов. Устройство и работа паровозов и техника их ремонта (под редакцией С.П. Сыромятникова), Трансжелдориздат (State Publishing House), 1937

External links