News

DRAGON 2 Locomotive Presented at Żmigród

On July 12, 2018, a new DRAGON 2 loco­mo­tive, desi­gned by NEWAG, was pre­sen­ted at Żmigród Test Track which belongs to Insty­tut Kolej­nic­twa [Rail­way Rese­arch Insti­tute] in the pre­sence of Andrzej Adam­czyk, Mini­ster for Infra­struc­ture and  Andrzej Bit­tel, Deputy Mini­ster for Infrastructure.

“We are trans­for­ming the Polish rail­way indu­stry. Today, we are pre­sen­ting a new loco­mo­tive which is the result of work of Polish engi­ne­ers. I am very happy that thanks to the achie­ve­ments of our com­pa­nies, Polish rail indu­stry has arri­ved at 21^st cen­tury. We care for both pas­sen­ger trans­port and cargo trans­port. We have been imple­men­ting a pro­ject of exten­sive inve­st­ment in Polish rail trans­port. Today’s event pro­ves and we are moving in the right direc­tion,” said Andrzej Adam­czyk, Mini­ster for Infrastructure.

“The new DRAGON 2 loco­mo­tive was desi­gned and built by a Polish com­pany NEWAG. I would like to con­gra­tu­late Zbi­gnie­w Koniecze­k, NEWAG’s CEO, on the suc­cess­ful com­ple­tion of this pro­ject. I am convin­ced that we will see Polish tech­ni­cal know-how and the works of Polish engi­ne­ers on Polish rail­way tracks more often,” said Andrzej Bit­tel, Under­se­cre­tary at the Mini­stry of Infrastructure.

The loco­mo­tive pre­sen­ted is the first in Europe six-axle elec­tric loco­mo­tive, fully com­pliant with Tech­ni­cal Spe­ci­fi­ca­tions for Inte­ro­pe­ra­bi­lity (TSI 2014), equ­ip­ped with Level 2 ETCS. It was desi­gned to pull heavy fre­ight tra­ins. The loco­mo­tive has conver­ters based on sili­con car­bide (SiC) which guaran­tee defect-free ope­ra­tion in high tem­pe­ra­tu­res, redu­ced noise levels, redu­ced energy los­ses by 50% and redu­ced size and weight of machi­nery by 60%.

“DRAGON 2 loco­mo­ti­ves uti­lize cutting-edge, relia­ble tech­no­lo­gies and ensure high work com­fort for the dri­ver. The main advan­tage of DRAGON 2 is a very high trac­tive force which, in com­bi­na­tion with the loco’s big weight, effec­tive anti-skid sys­tem and each axle drive ena­bles the loco­mo­tive to pull heavy cargo tra­ins. I hope that it will be use­ful for Polish trans­port,’ said Zbi­gniew Konie­czek, CEO of NEWAG S.A.

***

NEWAG was foun­ded in 1876. It is a leading manu­fac­tu­rer of elec­tric and die­sel pas­sen­ger tra­ins, elec­tric and die­sel loco­mo­ti­ves and under­gro­und tra­ins and trams. On May, 29, 2018, PKP Inter­city signed a con­tract with NEWAG for pur­chase of twenty new elec­tric loco­mo­ti­ves. The con­tract gross value exce­eds PLN 367 million.

The test track in Żmigró­d was ope­ned in 1996 as the sixth out of eight test tracks cur­ren­tly exi­sting worl­dwide. Since 2000, thus since the com­mer­cia­li­sa­tion and restruc­tu­ring of PKP– Polish Rail­way Com­pany and sepa­ra­ting the Rail­way Scien­ti­fic and Tech­ni­cal Cen­tre (cur­ren­tly the Rail­way Rese­arch Insti­tute) from the owner­ship struc­ture of PKP and sub­or­di­na­ting it direc­tly to the min­ster com­pe­tent for rail trans­port, it has been the pro­perty of the Institute.

“The test track in Żmigród which belongs to the Rail­way Rese­arch Insti­tute is one out of eight such cen­tres in the world and one of the six loca­ted in Europe. It is a very valu­able asset. I am satis­fied that the new loco­mo­tive manu­fac­tu­red by the Polish com­pany is pre­sen­ted here,” said Andrzej Żurkow­ski, Mana­ger of the Rail­way Rese­arch Institute.

“The Rail­way Rese­arch Insti­tute is imple­men­ting ele­ments of the Respon­si­ble Deve­lop­ment Stra­tegy, it coope­ra­tes with Naro­do­we Cen­trum Badań i Roz­woju [Natio­nal Rese­arch and Deve­lop­ment Cen­tre], the rail­way indu­stry, rail­way ope­ra­tors and infra­struc­ture mana­gers,” added Mr Żurkowski.

The test track in Żmigród is a uni­que rese­arch venue which makes it possi­ble to run tests of new solu­tions at their pre­pa­ra­tory stage. It is par­ti­cu­larly use­ful both in testing rail­way infra­struc­ture ele­ments, inc­lu­ding elec­tri­cal power equ­ip­ment, rail­way traf­fic mana­ge­ment etc., and espe­cially in testing rol­ling stock.

Diver­si­fied tech­ni­cal con­di­tions which appear at the Polish rail­way network are recre­ated on the track, which makes it possi­ble to run a variety of pro­cess tests in suita­ble con­di­tions i.e., on the track which is not bur­de­ned with regu­lar rail­way traf­fic but at the same time, fully reliable.