The VL10 (

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

: ВЛ10) is an electric two-unit mainline DC freight locomotive used in the

Soviet Union 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 ...

and is still operated today by the state owned Russian rail company

RZhD Russian Railways or RZD () is a Russian fully state-owned vertically integrated railway company, both managing infrastructure and operating freight and passenger train services and has a near-monopoly on long-distance train travel in Russia. T ...

Ukrainian Railways The Public JSC Ukrainian Railways or PAT 'Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ)' () is a state-owned joint-stock company administering railway infrastructure and rail transport in Ukraine; a monopoly that controls the vast majority of the railroad transporta ...

and

Georgian Railway Georgian Railway LLC ( ka, საქართველოს რკინიგზა, tr) is the national railway company of Georgia. A vital artery linking the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, it sits on the shortest route between Europe and Ce ...

. The initials ''VL'' are those of

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

(Russian: Владимир Ленин), after whom the class is named.

History

The VL10 series was built as a replacement for the ageing VL8 which, by 1960, no longer met Soviet rail requirements. The VL10s were manufactured at the

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი, ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), ( ka, ტფილისი, tr ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia ( ...

Electric Locomotive Works (ТЭВЗ) between 1961–1977, as well as the

Novocherkassk Electric Locomotive Plant Novocherkassk Electric Locomotive Plant (NEVZ, ), established in 1936, is based in the Russian town of Novocherkassk, Rostov Region. It is now (2015) part of Transmashholding. NEVZ locomotives haul trains transporting 80% of all cargo on the elec ...

(НЭВЗ) during 1969 and 1976. It was also there that all the mechanical components for the series were produced. The first prototype of the VL10 series was built in the Tbilisi works under the designation Т8-001. It was built in 1961 to coincide with the 40th anniversary of Soviet rule in

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

In popular culture

The electric locomotive VL10-792 was introduced in the Trainz computer game in 2012. In 2020, the

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

developer PlayWay presented a computer simulation game Trans-Siberian Railway Simulator. The protagonist of the story is a train VL10-792. The action unfolds on the section of the

Trans-Siberian Railway The Trans-Siberian Railway, historically known as the Great Siberian Route and often shortened to Transsib, is a large railway system that connects European Russia to the Russian Far East. Spanning a length of over , it is the longest railway ...

from

Novosibirsk Novosibirsk is the largest city and administrative centre of Novosibirsk Oblast and the Siberian Federal District in Russia. As of the 2021 Russian census, 2021 census, it had a population of 1,633,595, making it the most populous city in Siber ...

Krasnoyarsk Krasnoyarsk is the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and administrative center of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. It is situated along the Yenisey, Yenisey River, and is the second-largest city in Siberia after Novosibirsk, with a p ...

References

Electric locomotives of Russia Electric locomotives of Ukraine Electric locomotives of Armenia Electric locomotives of Georgia Electric locomotives of the Soviet Union 3000 V DC locomotives Bo′Bo′+Bo′Bo′ locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1961 5 ft gauge locomotives Freight locomotives {{Electric-loco-stub

History

In popular culture

See also

References