Direct Current Passenger Electric Locomotive CHS2 023

ChS1 electric locomotives supplied from Czechoslovakia successfully operated on the railways of the USSR. However, as passenger transportation volumes continued to grow, the need for more powerful locomotives became increasingly apparent. As a result, a Soviet order was placed with the Škoda Plant for the production of a six-axle DC passenger electric locomotive.

In 1958, the Škoda Plant built and delivered to the USSR two prototypes of such a locomotive of factory type 25E₀. During tests on the Moscow-Kursk-Donbas Railway, a number of design shortcomings were identified. In 1961, the plant developed a new six-axle 34Е electric locomotive for the Soviet Union’s railways. This model represented a further evolution of the type 25E₀, featuring a significantly redesigned structure.

Starting in 1962, the Škoda Plant commenced mass production of these machines, which were designated as the ChS2 class (Czechoslovakian, second type) in the USSR. The mass production of the ChS2 electric locomotives continued for a decade, from 1962 to 1972. Over this period, various changes and improvements were continuously made to their design, reflected in the evolution of factory model designations from 34E₀ to 34E₄ in 1962–1964 and from 53E₀ to 53E₉ in 1964–1972.

The ChS2 class electric locomotives use a support-frame suspension of traction electric motors, implemented according to a scheme similar to that of the ChS1 and ChS3. Torque from the engine to the axle gearbox was transmitted through elastic crossings and a shaft (Secheron system drive). The electric locomotive’s control system was a rheostat-contactor system, with three possible engine connections: serial, serial-parallel, and parallel.

The body also housed two motor-compressors and two motor-fans. Some electric locomotives (ChS2^T factory type 53E) featured resistace braking equipment. The class also included two experimental electric locomotives, designated ChS2^M (Nos. 565 and 566, factory type 53E₃), with a design speed of 180 km/h.

They operated on the Oktyabrskaya Railway (Leningrad-Passazhirsky-Moskovsky, Moscow-Oktyabrskaya, and Murmansk Depots), the Moscow Railway (Moscow-Passazhirskaya-Kurskaya, Moscow-Sortirovochnaya, Moscow-Kievskaya, Moscow-3, Imeni Ilyicha, Lobnya, Orel Depots), the Southern Railway (October Depot), the Kuibyshev Railway (Kuibyshev Depot), the Sverdlovsk Railway (Sverdlovsk-Passazhirsky Depot), the West Siberian Railway (Barabinsk Depot), the South Ural Railway (Petropavlovsk Depot), the Donets Railway (Sloviansk, Yasynuvata Depots), and the Prydnipro Railway (Dnipropetrovsk, Melitopol, Simferopol, Nikopol, and Kryvyi Rih Depots).

The operation of these locomotives on the Russian Railways network ended in the 21st century. However, on Ukrainian railways, these electric locomotives, having undergone major repairs and modernisation, continue to be used to this day.

On the main Leningrad-Moscow line of the Oktyabrskaya Railway, these locomotives were previously used with high-speed passenger trains, reaching speeds of up to 160 km/h. In 1963, individual trains on the Leningrad-Moscow route took 5 hours and 27 minutes. During test runs in 1965, ChS2 electric locomotives completed the same route in just 4 hours and 59 minutes.

The ChS2 023 electric locomotive displayed in the museum was built in 1962 (factory type 34E₁, serial number 4377), and was sent from the plant to the Prydnipro Railway. In 1977, it was transferred to the West Siberian Railway.