Class ME / SU175
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DSB ME 1533 (Henschel
32780), Valby, Denmark, September 16, 2007; old
livery version. Photo by someone who wants to be known as Rso-ksj
(source: www.commons.wikimedia.org).
DSB ME 1527 (Henschel
32727/1983), Østerport station, Copenhagen, June 2, 2017; new livery version. Photo by Leif Jørgensen (source: as above). |
Between 1981 and 1985 Danish
state railways Danske Statsbaner (DSB)
took delivery of 37 heavy six-axle diesel locomotives from Henschel.
Classed ME and numbered 1501 through 1537, they were among the first diesels featuring
AC drive built in quantity. They were used mainly for heavy local traffic in
Zealand. In 2017, 33 examples were still in use; three had been scrapped and
No. 1501 had been transferred to the Danish railway museum of Odense in 2015.
With 42 new ‘Vectron’ electric locomotives ordered
from Siemens in 2018 (class EB),
all MEs were withdrawn until 2021, being the last diesel locomotives in
regular service in Denmark. 27 were sold to Swedish Nordic Re-Finance AB leasing company; they are intended for passenger
and freight traffic across Scandinavia. The remaining six examples (numbered
1503, 1505, 1511, 1517, 1522 and 1532), initially also dispatched to Sweden,
were finally sold in 2022 to Polish private operator SKPL Cargo (Stowarzyszenie Kolejowych Przewozów Lokalnych – Association
for Local Railway Traffic). Currently (October 2023) they are undergoing
repairs and overhauls in Ostrów Wielkopolski. Most
probably they are intended for leasing. In early October ME 1511 was
re-numbered SU175-001 and this class designation will most probably be
applied for the remaining five examples. ‘175’ indicates maximum speed,
although – according to some sources – it was in fact reduced to 130 km/h. Main
technical data
References and acknowledgments
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www.ilostan.forumkolejowe.pl; |
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