E300
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Factory-fresh motor car of an E-91; location and
date unknown. Source: National Digital
Archives (used by permission).
EW51-14, PKP, photographed at the Warszawa
Olszynka Grochowska depot by Tadeusz Suchorolski,
1977. Photo from my collection.
This is an EW51, but service number EN-92025 is not
correct neither compliant with PKP
system. Location unknown, May 1960. Photo from my collection.
Preserved EW51-36 undergoing restoration at the ZNTK in Mińsk Mazowiecki.
Looks OK, but electric equipment is missing. Photographed on January 16,
2019, by someone who wishes to be known as Mrpitt.
Source: www.commons.wikimedia.org.
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In
1934 PKP issued a requirement for
electric multiple units (EMUs) for the Warsaw railway hub, which was being
electrified with 3000 V DC. Following preliminary studies, triple layout was
chosen, with a four-axle motor car; trailer and driving cars were fitted with
the Jacobs truck, so that axle arrangement of the entire unit was
Bo’Bo’+2’2’2’. Motor cars (class ECmx) were
manufactured by Warsaw-based Lilpop, Rau & Loewenstein company, while trailer and driving cars (EBCbdxx and EBCbdsxx,
respectively) were ordered from H. Cegielski Sp. Akc. of Poznań and L. Zieleniewski, Fitzner & Gamper of Sanok. Electric
equipment was to be supplied by English
Electric Co. Ltd. and several sub-assemblies were imported from Germany,
France and Switzerland. Classed E-91, new EMUs for the Warsaw hub were modern
and reliable vehicles. Their main shortcoming were failures of traction
motors in winter conditions as a result of moisture penetration, due to
faulty design; this was later rectified by the manufacturer. Initially
sixty units were ordered and deliveries began in July 1936, to be completed
in late 1937. Immediately afterwards additional sixteen motor cars were
ordered, plus ten (according to some sources, also sixteen) trailer/driving
car units. This order was completed in 1939. Six ‘surplus’ motor cars were
intended for use as makeshift locomotives, for hauling transit trains along
so-called Diameter Line through central Warsaw. In this role they
supplemented four class EL.200 light electric locomotives from Lilpop, which
featured the same traction motors and electric equipment. Classed E300 and
numbered E301 through E306 (Lilpop 55558/1939 through 55563/1939), they were fitted
with the second cab and standard PKP
couplers; originally ECmx was coupled with a
trailer car by means of the Scharfenberg coupler.
Little is known about service of these ‘locomotives’ with PKP; it is even not sure if all six
examples were completed before the outbreak of the war. In September 1939
fourteen EMUs were completely destroyed and the rest damaged and devastated.
Following the decision of German authorities to restore electric trains in
the Warsaw area, forty units were repaired. Along with them, five E300s were
restored in service. The fate of E303 is unknown, probably it was destroyed
or damaged beyond repair during hostilities. According to LP it ended up with DR in Eastern Germany; details are
lacking. In September 1944, in view of the Red Army advance, five E300s were
evacuated to Breslau (now Wrocław) and later to
Czechoslovakia and Austria. Returned after the war, they were used together
with surviving E-91s, for restoration of EMUs for the Warsaw hub (PKP class E91, from 1959 class EW51).
None saw service in the ‘locomotive’ role. Class EW51 remained in use until
1979 and one example (EW51-36) has been preserved. Currently it is undergoing
restoration at the ZNTK (Railway Stock Repair Works) of Mińsk Mazowiecki. During
the war, ten ECmx were used to construct five
makeshift electric locomotives; they were coupled back-to-back and ballasted
with additional six tonnes of concrete slabs and worn-out
brake pads. These vehicles were necessary due to increasing freight traffic
along the Diameter Line. They were impressed into Ostbahn and numbered 01 through
05. According to some sources, they were later re-numbered E606.301 through 305.
Their final fate is unknown. No. 03 was reportedly badly damaged in mid-1944
during a collision and never repaired. It seems that in some sources
(especially Internet ones) there is some confusion of class E300 and alleged
class E606. I shall be grateful for any additional information. Main
technical data
1) Operated by Ostbahn in occupied Poland. References and
acknowledgments
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ALE,
LP; -
Elektryfikacja PKP na przełomie wieków XX i XXI (Electrification
of PKP at the turn of the 20th century) (Z.P. Poligrafia, Warsaw, 2006); -
Monographic article on class E-91 EMUs by Zbigniew Tucholski (SK vol. 1/2012). |
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