The first construction sketch of the proposed RhB diesel locomotive.

17 December 2009

Rhätische Bahn Orders Diesel Locomotives at Schalke

Chur Switzerland - Rhätische Bahn AG (RhB) AG with its head office in Chur, signed a contract for the development, manufacture, and the delivery of four diesel-electric locomotives with Schalker Eisenhütte Maschinenfabrik GmbH.
 
RhB is a modern, multilateral, transportation company and the leading metre gauge railway company of the Alps region.
 
The trains run through 114 tunnels and over 582 bridges when operating on the RhB route network that has a total length of 384 kilometres.
 
The Rhätische Bahn company is also world famous for their two highly exceptional trains the Bernina Express and the Glacier Express.
 
In 2008 the Albula and the Bernina Line of RhB even gained a list position as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
 
Besides their actual work in mechanical track construction the Schalke locomotives will also be used for various different applications on the metre gauge network.
 
For example, on the one hand they will operate as traction vehicles for the rotary snowplows or the gauge plows, and on the other hand they will be used as an intervention vehicle for towing passenger trains that break down or are unserviceable for other reasons.
 
The four-axle locomotives will not only be furnished with a performance of 1,800 kW, but will also be perfectly adjusted to the very special operational conditions of the RhB network.
 
Schalke and RhB agreed on scheduling the delivery of the locomotives for the years 2012-2013.
 
This delivery includes the required network authorization that is given by the Swiss railway authority BAV.
 
In this context Schalke points out that the drive conception of the locomotives is exactly the same as the one used with the new SDE platform concept that Schalke presently develops for heavy shunting locomotives.