The

SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (, , SNCF ) is France's national State-owned enterprise, state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the Rail transport in France, country's national rail traffic along with th ...

Class CC 6500 is a class of 1.5 kV DC

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. The CC 6500 was, together with the and diesel CC 72000, the first generation of the '

Nez Cassé The Nez Cassé series of locomotives is a large family of electric and diesel locomotives intended primarily for fast passenger service on the French SNCF railway system. Produced by Alstom, Alsthom for use under multiple electrification networks ...

' family of locomotives and designed for hauling express trains with speeds up to but also used for heavy freight trains. Among the trains they hauled in their first years of service were the SNCF flagship train '' Le Mistral'' and

Trans Europ Express The Trans Europ Express, or Trans-Europe Express (TEE), was an international first-class railway service in western and central Europe that was founded in 1957 and ceased in 1995. At the height of its operations, in 1974, the TEE network compri ...

trains ''

Aquitaine Aquitaine (, ; ; ; ; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Aguiéne''), archaic Guyenne or Guienne (), is a historical region of southwestern France and a former Regions of France, administrative region. Since 1 January 2016 it has been part of the administ ...

'', '' Le Capitole'' and '' l'Étendard''. Nock, O.S. (1978). "The Aquitaine: pioneer of electric power", in ''World Atlas of Railways'', pp. 120–121. New York: Mayflower Books (original publisher: Artists House, London, UK). .

Technical details

The locomotives had 3-axle

monomotor bogie A monomotor bogie () is a form of traction bogie used for an electric locomotive or diesel-electric locomotive. It is distinguished by having a single traction motor on each bogie. Development The first electric locomotives used large diameter el ...

s with each set of 3 axles coupled by gears. Speed regulation was by

rheostat A potentiometer is a three-terminal (electronics), terminal resistor with a sliding or rotating contact that forms an adjustable voltage divider. If only two terminals are used, one end and the wiper, it acts as a variable resistor or rheostat. ...

s and

series-parallel control A brushed DC electric motor is an internally Commutator (electric), commutated electric motor designed to be run from a direct current power source and utilizing an brush (electric), electric brush for electrical contact, contact. Brushed motors w ...

. The motors had double armatures so there were four "demi-motors" which allowed three motor groupings: full series, series-parallel and full parallel. The power controller had 28 steps. The second batch of CC 6500 locomotives were equipped with third-rail electrical pickups for use on the steeply-graded

Maurienne Maurienne (; ; ) is one of the provinces of Savoy, corresponding to the arrondissement of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne in France. It is also the original name of the capital of the province, now Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne. Location The Maurienne val ...

line in the Alps, which were removed when the line was converted to overhead catenary supplies.

Production

Between 1969 and 1976 a total of 74 were built, with the last of this class taken out of service in 2007. Four more were built as dual-system 1.5 kV DC/

25 kV AC Railway electrification systems using alternating current (AC) at are used worldwide, especially for high-speed rail. It is usually supplied at the standard utility frequency (typically 50 or 60Hz), which simplifies traction substations. The dev ...

locomotives, and designated Class CC 21000. These were reconfigured for use as DC only locomotives between 1995 and 1996, taking the total of CC 6500 locomotives to 78.

Names

Around half the class received names. Most are named after French towns, except CC 6572, which was named to commemorate the World War II railway workers resistance group,

Résistance-Fer ''Résistance-Fer'' ( French; Railway-Resistance, or "Iron-Resistance") was a French Resistance group against the German occupation of France during the Second World War. This specific movement was essentially composed of French railway workers f ...

Technical details

Production

Names

References

Further reading