SBB-CFF-FFS Re 620
Encyclopedia
 on the northern Bözberg incline |
|
| Production and service data | |
|---|---|
| Build date | 1972, 1975–1980 |
| Road numbers | 11601 – 11689 |
| Road numbers (UIC International Union of Railways The UIC , or International Union of Railways, is an international rail transport industry body.- Brief history :The railways of Europe originated as separate concerns. There were many border changes after World War I and the Treaty of Versailles. Colonial railways were the responsibility of the... ) |
Re 620 001 – Re 620 089 |
| Production | 89 |
| Still in use | 88 |
| Services | Passenger and freight trains; Today mostly freight |
| Maintenance facility | Bellinzona Bellinzona Bellinzona is the administrative capital of the canton Ticino in Switzerland. The city is famous for its three castles that have been UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 2000.... |
| End of operation | due to accident (1) |
| Technical data | |
| Vehicle type | Electric locomotive |
| Builder | SLM Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works were a railway equipment manufacturer based in Winterthur in Switzerland... Winterthur Winterthur Winterthur is a city in the canton of Zurich in northern Switzerland. It has the country's sixth largest population with an estimate of more than 100,000 people. In the local dialect and by its inhabitants, it is usually abbreviated to Winti... BBC BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff... Baden Baden, Switzerland Baden is a municipality in the Swiss canton of Aargau, on the west bank of the river Limmat, located in the Limmat Valley , northwest of Zürich. It is the seat of the district of Baden... SAAS Geneva Geneva Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland... |
| Wheel arrangement Wheel arrangement In rail transport, a wheel arrangement is a system of classifying the way in which wheels are distributed beneath a locomotive.. Several notations exist to describe the wheel assemblies of a locomotive by type, position, and connections, with the adopted notations varying by country... |
Bo'Bo'Bo' |
| Top speed Top Speed Top Speed is a 1930 American musical comedy film released by First National Pictures, a subsidiary of Warner Brothers.-Production:The film was completed as a full musical... |
140 km/h |
| Power Motive power In thermodynamics, motive power is an agency, as water or steam, used to impart motion. Generally, motive power is defined as a natural agent, as water, steam, wind, electricity, etc., used to impart motion to machinery; a motor; a mover. The term may also define something, as a locomotive or a... |
7850 kW Watt The watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units , named after the Scottish engineer James Watt . The unit, defined as one joule per second, measures the rate of energy conversion.-Definition:... |
| Power output Power (physics) In physics, power is the rate at which energy is transferred, used, or transformed. For example, the rate at which a light bulb transforms electrical energy into heat and light is measured in watts—the more wattage, the more power, or equivalently the more electrical energy is used per unit... |
10700 Hp |
| Continuous traction | 270 kN |
| Maximum traction | 398 kN |
| Performance on inclines | 800 tons train on a 26 ‰ gradient at 80 km/h |
| Size and Weight | |
| Length over buffers | 19'310 mm |
| Width | 2950 mm |
| Height | 3932 mm |
| Weight | 120 t |
| Other | |
| Special characteristics | 2 of the 4 prototypes have a split locomotive body |
| Predecessor | Ae 6/6 SBB-CFF-FFS Ae 6/6 The Ae 6/6 is a heavy electric locomotive used by the SBB-CFF-FFS. It is sometimes also referred to as canton locomotive , because the first 25 locomotives were named after the cantons, and carried the canton's coat of arms on the side and chrome embellishments , and the Swiss coat of arms... |
| Successor | Re 460, Re 482 |
The Re 620, Re 6/6 in the old numbering scheme, are six-axle, electric locomotives of the SBB-CFF-FFS
SBB-CFF-FFS
Swiss Federal Railways and SFR are not in official use) is the national railway company of Switzerland headquartered in Bern. Formerly a government institution, it is since 1999 a special stock corporation with all shares held by the Swiss Confederation or the Swiss cantons...
, which were acquired as a replacement for the Ae 6/6
SBB-CFF-FFS Ae 6/6
The Ae 6/6 is a heavy electric locomotive used by the SBB-CFF-FFS. It is sometimes also referred to as canton locomotive , because the first 25 locomotives were named after the cantons, and carried the canton's coat of arms on the side and chrome embellishments , and the Swiss coat of arms...
for heavy services on the Gotthardbahn
Gotthardbahn
Gotthardbahn was the name of a private Swiss railway company which operated the railway line from Immensee to Chiasso . Nowadays this term usually does not refer to that company, but to the railway line itself...
. They are the most modern of the so-called "Gotthard locomotives".
Construction and Technology
To reach the necessary tractive effort, a construction comprising six driven axles was necessary. In order to still get good running characteristics in curves, they were built into three two-axle bogieBogie
A bogie is a wheeled wagon or trolley. In mechanics terms, a bogie is a chassis or framework carrying wheels, attached to a vehicle. It can be fixed in place, as on a cargo truck, mounted on a swivel, as on a railway carriage/car or locomotive, or sprung as in the suspension of a caterpillar...
s instead of two three-axle bogies as on the Ae 6/6. The middle bogie can move sideways, and the three bogies are connected by elastic cross couplings. Two of the four prototypes were built with a split locomotive body, whereby the joint may only move on an horizontal transverse axis, not on a vertical axis, to accommodate to gradient changes.
The other two prototypes got a softer secondary suspension instead of the joint, which proved to be so reliable in everyday use that all series locomotives were built this way.
Nevertheless, the two prototypes with a split body are still in regular operation.
The exterior design is similar to the Re 4/4II
SBB-CFF-FFS Re 420
The Re 420, originally Re 4/4II series are the most common electric locomotives of the Swiss Federal Railways. They are used for passenger services throughout Switzerland alone or in pairs. For freight services, they are sometimes paired with the Re 620, especially in mountainous regions...
, as are the driver's controls and the conventional transformer
Transformer
A transformer is a device that transfers electrical energy from one circuit to another through inductively coupled conductors—the transformer's coils. A varying current in the first or primary winding creates a varying magnetic flux in the transformer's core and thus a varying magnetic field...
technology with fixed running notches, which was applied for the last time for this locomotive. In contrast to the Re 4/4II, the Re 6/6 has two transformers (one power and one control transformer), which are mounted on the frame between the bogies. Due to the higher roof, the Re 6/6 looks more brawny than the Re 4/4II, especially when seen from the front side.
Operations
The Re 6/6 is equipped with multiple unit train control together with Re 4/4II, Re 4/4IIISBB-CFF-FFS Re 420
The Re 420, originally Re 4/4II series are the most common electric locomotives of the Swiss Federal Railways. They are used for passenger services throughout Switzerland alone or in pairs. For freight services, they are sometimes paired with the Re 620, especially in mountainous regions...
, Re 4/4IV and RBe 540
SBB-CFF-FFS RBe 540
Starting in 1959, the SBB-CFF-FFS put motored coaches of the type RBe 540 into service for push-pull operation on the Gotthard line...
. In passenger traffic they pull heavy passenger trains over the Gotthard route (as an alternative to a double heading of Re 4/4). In freight traffic they are used all over Switzerland for heavy trains, on the Gotthard route very often together with an Re 4/4II or Re 4/4III. Such a couple, often referred to as "Re 10/10" (both locomotives are Re class, so the couple is Re class; 10/10 means that they overall have 10 driven axles out of 10), is capable of pulling the maximum train weight of 1300 tons on the 26 ‰ gradients of the Gotthard line. For heavier trains, up to 1600 tons are operationally feasible; an additional bank engine
Bank engine
A bank engine or helper engine or pusher engine is a railway locomotive that temporarily assists a train that requires additional power or traction to climb a grade...
has to help push the train in order not to overload the couplers
Coupling (railway)
A coupling is a mechanism for connecting rolling stock in a train. The design of the coupler is standard, and is almost as important as the railway gauge, since flexibility and convenience are maximised if all rolling stock can be coupled together.The equipment that connects the couplings to the...
.
Locomotive 11638 was retired and scrapped in 1990 due to an accident. For the renumbering to the UIC
International Union of Railways
The UIC , or International Union of Railways, is an international rail transport industry body.- Brief history :The railways of Europe originated as separate concerns. There were many border changes after World War I and the Treaty of Versailles. Colonial railways were the responsibility of the...
-conforming new numbering scheme in 1992, only the still existing locomotives were considered, thus the 11638 got no new number any more. But the renumbering was never done consistently. During 2005, the UIC numbering scheme was reworked, and 620 001 (instead of 000) was defined to be the smallest number. To make things easy, the scrapped 11638 also got a new number, 620 038. About half a dozen locomotives bore the new numbers at the beginning of 2006.
After two locomotives were tentatively equipped with radio remote control for pushing trains on the Gotthard line (such that the locomotive pushing at the end of the train may be controlled by the engineer at the front), about 30 locomotives were equipped with it in 2000. To make them administratively distinguishable, they got the new designation Ref 6/6.
When SBB was divided into passenger services and freight, the first thirteen locomotives 11601–13 remained in the passenger division. On 1st January 2003 they were exchanged against Re 460. Now all remaining 88 locomotives are assigned to SBB Cargo
SBB Cargo
SBB Cargo is a subsidiary of Swiss Federal Railways specialising in railfreight. Swiss Federal Railways is a former state-owned company that was transformed in 1999 into a joint-stock company under special legislation and divided up into three independent divisions: Passenger Traffic, Freight and...
. Due to the reassignment of the Re 460 to the passenger division, the Re 6/6 again dominate the freight traffic on the Gotthard line.
The locomotives are assigned to the workshops Erstfeld
Erstfeld
Erstfeld is a municipality in the canton of Uri in Switzerland.-History:Erstfeld is first mentioned in 1258 as Ourzcvelt. In 1638 it was listed under the Latin name in Protocampis. In 1831 it was known as Hirschfelden.-Geography:...
, Bellinzona
Bellinzona
Bellinzona is the administrative capital of the canton Ticino in Switzerland. The city is famous for its three castles that have been UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 2000....
and Lausanne
Lausanne
Lausanne is a city in Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and is the capital of the canton of Vaud. The seat of the district of Lausanne, the city is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva . It faces the French town of Évian-les-Bains, with the Jura mountains to its north-west...
(Lausanne: 2000, today unknown), revisions are done at the main workshop at Bellinzona.