LAST MONTH saw Nord-Ostsee Bahn begin trials with a DE2700 locomotive. The first of 12 intended to take over the Marschbahn service between Hamburg and Westerland from December, it was built for Norwegian State Railways as Class Di6 by Krupp-MAK and Siemens in the 1990s.
A series of problems prompted NSB to send the Di6s back to Germany in 1999, where Siemens modified them and put them to work in its Dispolok fleet as Type ME26. In 2003-04 they were acquired by Vossloh, which won the contract to supply traction to NOB. Vossloh is modifying the DE2700s for passenger service on the Marschbahn until it can supply new locos in 2007.
Vossloh’s intention had been to develop its six-axle R3000 design, but this project has been dropped following its acquisition of the former Alstom factory at Albuixech near Valencia in Spain (RG 10.04 p711). Vossloh’s future high-power diesels will be based on the Alstom Prima design, it seems.
With the prospect of Vossloh concentrating loco production in Spain rather than at Kiel in northern Germany, local media have reported that Voith Turbo is considering filling the gap. The R3000 would have made use of Voith’s LS640 Turbo-Split transmission (RG 2.04 p107), and the end of the R3000 project meant that Voith Turbo no longer had an outlet for its new product. Voith announced on February 11 that it would develop its own high-performance diesel-hydraulic loco to exploit the new transmission design, saying it would offer this ’locomotive concept’ for manufacture under licence ’on the basis of approved prototypes’, supplying customers with the driveline and other components. n
