In 1971, the Machinoimport All-Union Association acquired the HS400 six-axle diesel locomotive built in 1967 by the British firm Brush electrical engineering Co LTD. This locomotive was demonstrated at the International Exhibition "Rolling Stock of Railways-71" at st. Shcherbinka Moscow road in 1971
Carrier-type diesel locomotive body is made with pre-stressed lining. The driver’s cabs rest on the lower frame through the rubber elements. The length of the locomotive on the buffer 20269 mm. The frames of the carts consist of two sides, two transverse intermediate beams and two end shaped beams. Jaw type bushings. The balance weight rests on the two adjacent axle boxes of each side. Trolley frame through four sets of coil springs supported by four balancers.
The diameter of the new wheels 1092 mm. Gear wheels with elasticity elements are planted on the axis of the wheelset. One-way transmission, gear ratio 19: 60 = 1: 3.15. The total wheelbase of the locomotive is 15748 mm, the wheelbase of the carts is 4547 mm, and the distance between the 1st and 2nd axles and the 6th and 5th axles is 2210 mm.
Traction motors on one side are suspended from the truck's cross beams, and on the other, through the hollow cylinder, they rest on the axles of the wheel sets. Roller bearings are placed between the hollow cylinder and the axle of the wheelset.
The diesel locomotive is equipped with a sixteen-cylinder four-stroke Zulzer 16LVA24 diesel engine with turbocharging and oil cooling. The diesel engine with a shaft speed of 1100 rev / min develops a rated power of 4000 hp. The cylinder diameter of the diesel engine is 240 mm, the piston stroke is 280 mm. Dry diesel weight 18,500 kg. Fuel consumption in nominal mode 167 g / (e.h.p.). Diesel oil is cooled with water in the heat exchanger, and water in the radiators.
The diesel engine drives the rotor of the three-phase synchronous generator BL-120-50 / IOP, which is rigidly connected to the shaft of the diesel engine, to rotate. The generator is designed as a machine with a ten-pole rotor and brushless excitation. At the end of the shaft of the traction generator is placed the rotor of the pathogen, the stator of the pathogen along with silicon rectifiers built into it is mounted on the body of the traction generator.
The alternating current produced by the traction generator using a rectifier, consisting of 84 S20G silicon diodes No. 301 and 302 A for 300 A, is converted into a direct current. At the output of the installation at a frequency of rotation of the shaft of a diesel engine of 1100 rev / min, a power of 2520 kW (3110 A, 810 V) or 2510 kW (4980 A, 504 V) can be obtained.
Traction motors TM73-68M are four-pole. When the air is supplied through an electric motor of 85 m 3 / min, it has a power of 379 kW (830 A, 504 V, 681 r / min) or 374 kW (900 A, 464 V, 610 r / min). Electric motor weight with gear 2806 kgf.
The shaft of the traction generator through a gearbox with a gear ratio of 2.5 and a clutch is connected to a DC generator and a synchronous auxiliary three-phase current generator. The DC generator is used to charge the battery and power the DC motors of fuel and oil pumps, compressors and other auxiliary machines. The power of this generator is 40.3 kW (448 A, 110 V); The generator is used as a starter when starting a diesel engine. From the auxiliary generator, three-phase current is supplied by asynchronous electric motors of fans of traction electric motors and refrigerators: from the same generator, the rectified current is fed to the heating devices of the cars of the passenger train. Auxiliary generator power 530 kW.
The locomotive has a rheostatic braking, while the electric motor of the fan that cools the brake resistors, is powered by one of the traction electric motors operating in generator mode.
The weight of the locomotive is 126 tf, the maximum speed is 177 km / h. Thrust at a maximum speed of 4500 kgf, at a speed of 30 km / h - 27000 kgf, at a speed of 45 km / h - 18700 kgf.
The locomotive was initially operated and tested on a 1,435 mm gauge on British Railways, and after it was equipped in 1971 with automatic couplings and wheel pairs of 1,520 mm gauge - on the experimental ring of the Central Research Institute of Railway Ministry and a number of railway sections of the Soviet Union.
4000 hp six-axle locomotive Company Brush, often referred to in our literature as "Kestrel", after the tests until the mid-80s was in VNITI, and may be there now, if not written off as scrap metal.
The objectives of its acquisition are not entirely clear, because information obtained as a result of his tests could be found partly from the technical literature, partly through the acquisition and bench testing of individual units. IMHO, this was not the most interesting locomotive to learn.
The running gear of the Kestrel is a two-axle jaw trolley with a two-stage spring suspension, according to the scheme of American heat carrier trucks of the early 50s. The first stage is with inter-axle balancers, the second stage is of the lyulechny type. Due to the well-developed design, this trolley made it possible to realize a design speed of up to 200 km / h; however, in terms of weight and dimensions, it was significantly inferior to domestic ones. The practical interest was represented by separate units: motor-axial bearings, UZK of traction gear, suspension of TED with spherical silent block.
The excessively large dimensions and weight of the carts caused a number of problems with the layout of the units inside the body. Developers had to hang up the motor - a compressor under the body (!), Use roof coolers. The passages in the engine room were too narrow; in the winter, the brigade was difficult to climb. To facilitate the body itself, it was necessary to perform it in the form of a pre-stressed structure, with a bearing shell attached to the frame using resistance spot welding. By the beginning of the 80s, contact welding places rusted and fell out of pressing with a finger. With regard to our operating conditions, such a solution can hardly be considered acceptable.
Kestrel did not enter trial operation, however, for another reason - the fact is that, because of the low front cabin window, the diesel locomotive could only be controlled by sitting. Standing was not visible neither the path nor the signals.
After the end of the first test cycle, the power plant was removed from the locomotive and mounted in VNITI as a diesel test bench, the body was loaded with ballast for dynamic tests under increased load. In the late 70s, the Kestrel locomotive was installed on a branch inside the VNITI courtyard, on the Oka side, and was no longer used.