Exhibits

Assistance from the USA

Despite the creation of several different designs of diesel locomotives in the pre-war USSR, the introduction of diesel locomotive traction on domestic railways never moved beyond the experimental stage.

With the onset of the Great Patriotic War, the advantages of diesel traction became increasingly clear. As Soviet specialists placed substantial orders in the USA under Lend-Lease for various railway transport supplies, the delivery of diesel locomotives was also planned. The ALCO Plant was supposed to build and ship 70 diesel locomotives to the USSR. The RSD-1 model was selected as the sample for delivery. The total value of this order was approximately eight million dollars.

Universal Machine

The six-axle RSD-1 diesel locomotive was based on the four-axle RS-1 diesel locomotive developed by ALCO in 1941. The RS-1 (Road Switcher 1) was a four-axle diesel locomotive with a 539 series diesel engine (four-stroke, six-cylinder, in-line) with a capacity of 1,000 hp and with a DC electric transmission.

The RSD-1 diesel locomotive was developed based on the RS-1, with the main difference being the use of two three-axle trucks.

The RS-1 was seen as a general-purpose locomotive, suitable for both mainline and shunting work. Therefore, it featured a fundamentally new for that time hood-type body design, with the control cab positioned not at the end of the locomotive, but “sandwiched” between two hoods of different lengths. This design would later become widely adopted in American diesel locomotives.

The RS-1 locomotives were quite successful and were produced in the USA for nearly 20 years until 1960, with just under 500 units built.

Trans-Iranian Railway

After the outbreak of World War II, as part of the large-scale Lend-Lease program, the Allies faced the task of ensuring large volumes of freight transport along the Trans-Iranian Railway, which became one of the main routes for delivering military aid to the USSR. To support transportation along this route, the US Army required a significant number of locomotives, and the RS-1 was selected as the model for the order.

One of the main routes for delivering military aid to the USSR was the Trans-Iranian Railway, but American diesel locomotives were too heavy for it.

These diesel locomotives, modern for their time and quite powerful, were suitable for the task, with one exception: designed for operation on American railways, they had an axial load of 28 tf, which was unacceptably high for the Trans-Iranian Railway, given their weight of 112 t.

In response, ALCO urgently developed the RSD-1 diesel locomotive based on the RS-1, which differed mainly in using two three-axle trucks. The new locomotive had a 3_O-3_O wheel arrangement, and the axial load was reduced to 19 tf. As a result, between 1942 and 1946, the US Army received approximately one hundred RSD-1 diesel locomotives.

D^A20 09 Diesel Locomotive

Deliveries

It was the RSD-1 that was chosen by ALCO as a model for delivery to the USSR. The entire batch of locomotives, 70 units in total, was built during 1944. The Soviet designation of the series was D^A (indicated as D^A20, where the number indicated the axial load in tonne-forces), no 01–80. The electrical equipment was manufactured by General Electric.

The diesel locomotives were delivered to the USSR by sea, and two of them sank.

The locomotives were delivered to the USSR by sea on ships, and two diesel locomotives, D^A no. 41 and no. 50, were lost during transportation (they sank). Diesel locomotives were unloaded in the northern ports of Murmansk and Molotovsk (now Severodvinsk).

Operation

In February 1945, the first diesel locomotive, D^A20 11, was put into operation at the Ramenskoye Depot near Moscow. Subsequently, the majority of the D^A diesel locomotives were sent to the Ashgabat Railway (to the Ashgabat, Mary, Chardzhou, Gazanjyk, and Krasnovodsk Depots), where, starting in May 1945, they began servicing the entire main line of the railway from Krasnovodsk to Ziyovuddin.

In February 1945, the first diesel locomotive, D^A20 11, was put into operation at the Ramenskoye Depot near Moscow.

A small batch of D^A diesel locomotives arrived at the Gudermes Depot of the Ordzhonikidze Railway in the second half of 1945, where they began servicing the Gudermes-Astrakhan and Gudermes-Makhachkala sections. Later, these locomotives were also transferred to the Ashgabat Railway, where all the D^A diesel locomotives were eventually concentrated.

Most of the D^A locomotives operated throughout their entire service life in Central Asia and were decommissioned on the Central Asian Railway in the 1980s. The very last D^A locomotives in the Ministry of Railways network were retired in the early 1990s.

Museum Exhibit

The D^A20 09 diesel locomotive, built in 1944 and now displayed in the museum, was used for many years on the Ashgabat Railway before being transferred to the North Caucasus Railway in 1964.