Indian locomotive class WDM-2
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The class WDM-2 is Indian Railways' workhorse diesel locomotive. The first units were imported fully built from the American Locomotive Company (Alco) in 1962. Since 1964, it has been manufactured in India by the Diesel Locomotive Works (DLW), Varanasi. The model name stands for broad gauge (W), diesel (D), mixed traffic (M) engine. The WDM-2 is the most common diesel locomotive of Indian Railways.
The WDM-2A is a variant of the original WDM-2. These units have been retro-fitted with air brakes, in addition to the original vacuum brakes. The WDM-2B is a more recent locomotive, built with air brakes as original equipment. The WDM-2 locos have a maximum speed of 120 km/h (75 mph), restricted to 100 km/h (62 mph) when run long hood forward. The gear ratio is 65:18.
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[edit] History
During the mainline dieselification project undertaken by the Indian railways in the early sixties, diesel locomotive designs were requested from General Motors and the American Locomotive Company (ALCO). Both General motors and ALCO presnted two prototypes. They were named WDM-4 and WDM-2 class in India respectively. Technically General motor's WDM-4 was superior to ALCO's WDM-2. But Indian railway demanded a transfer of technology agreement that will allow to built those engines inside India under the company's permission. As General motors did not agree to the proposal and ALCO did, the ALCO prototype was chosen.After importing the first few prototypes, when the Diesel locomotive factory was set up in Varanasi production of the locomotives started in India. The first 12 locos were built from imported kits from ALCO. Then DLW started making complete locos. Since then 2800+ locos have been manufactured and WDM-2 has become the most widely popular locomotive in India.
However, even before the arrival of WDM-2 another type of diesel locomotive was imported from ALCO classified as WDM-1 in 1957.
Later a number of modifications were made and a few subclasses were created. This includes WDM-2A, WDM-2B and WDM-3A (formerly WDM-2C).
[edit] Technical specifications[1]
| Builders | Alco, DLW |
| Engine | Alco 251-B, 16 cylinder, 2,600 hp (2,430 hp site rating) with Alco 710/720/?? turbo supercharged engine. 1,000 rpm max, 400 rpm idle; 228 mm x 266 mm bore/stroke; compression ratio 12.5:1. Direct fuel injection, centrifugal pump cooling system (2,457 l/min at 1,000 rpm), fan driven by eddy current clutch (86 hp at 1,000 rpm). |
| Governor | GE 17MG8 / Woodwards 8574-650. |
| Transmission | Electric, with BHEL TG 10931 AZ generator (1,000 rpm, 770 V, 4,520 amps). |
| Traction motors | GE752 (original Alco models) (405 hp), BHEL 4906 BZ (AZ?) (435 hp) and (newer) 4907 AZ (with roller bearings) |
| Axle load | 18.8 tonnes, total weight 112.8 t. |
| Bogies | Alco design cast frame trimount (Co-Co) bogies |
| Starting TE | 30.4 t, at adhesion 27%. |
| Length over buffer beams | 15,862 mm. |
| Distance between bogies | 10,516 mm. |
[edit] Notes and references
[edit] See also
- Indian Railways
- Indian Locomotives
- Indian locomotive class WAP-4
- Indian locomotive class WAP-5
- Indian locomotive class WAP-7
- Indian locomotive class WAG-9
[edit] External links
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