GE Transportation, a unit of General Electric Company, has officially certified its locomotive modernization unit with the Russian Federation Railway Registrar. The certificate is issued for the TE10M #0884GE diesel-electric locomotive section, which has successfully completed winter operational tests and is now under summer operational tests at a southern Russian railway.
Last year GE certified its 7FDL diesel engine with the GOSSTANDART of Russia. GOSSTANDART's team visited the United States to conduct thorough operating tests of the 7FDL Electronic Fuel Injection diesel engines to measure and confirm the fuel consumption and environmental emissions characteristics of these diesel engines. The test certificate confirms that the engine has specific fuel consumption of 192 g/kWhr and simultaneously the engine's environmental emissions are better than the allowable standards set by the Russian Federation.
"It is a major milestone for us. The locomotive modernization type is now approved with all the Russian regulatory bodies", Douglas Rockwell, GE Transportation Managing Director - Russia, says. "This modernized TE10M locomotive section has undergone a very rigorous regime of testing to confirm its characteristics. The representatives of VNIKTI, Transportation Test Center Incorporated, and the Russian Federation Railway Registrar performed static tests in the United States. Following these tests the locomotive was shipped to Russia where VNIIZhT performed dynamic tests at the Scherbinka Test Facility to validate fuel consumption, emissions, and traction characteristics. Following these stringent laboratory tests the locomotive was delivered to OAO Russian Railways, our key potential customer, for tests in regular railway operating conditions. The modernized section is now performing summer condition tests at Verkhny Baskunchak". Winter tests have already been completed. The locomotive is performing well with availability over 98%, and fuel consumption consistent with the specific fuel consumption of 192 g/kWhr observed during certification and lube oil consumption at 0.215%.
GE has extensive experience in modernizing old Soviet locomotives: in particular, during the recent three years the company has been awarded two contracts with Kazakhstan Railways (KTZ) for modernizing 254 2TE10 sections and a contract with Mongolian Railways for modernizing 22 2M62 sections. After a visit to KTZ, Uzbekistan Railways' team wrote in its report, "we have noticed that the diesel engine and auxiliary equipment are incomparably clean, no leakages of fuel, lube oil or water was detected. Increased reliability of the equipment allows the locomotive crew to pay more attention to the train operational safety". K. Sarsembayev, KTZ Vice President has stated, "The modernization was extensive but fundamentally provided us with a functionally new locomotive in terms of the operating equipment".
The low life-cycle costs and high reliability of the GE 2TE10M modernization, which are being measured under actual Russian operating conditions, make it a very attractive economic option for railways in the CIS region as well as the emerging private freight operators that are being created through the railway reform legislation in Russia and other countries. This option is consistent with the strategic growth plans of the regions railways and private operators. Having now received type certification, GE is looking forward to closely working with the regions' railways and private operators to support their plans for profitable growth.
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