page_title: Electric locomotive
section_title: Russia and former USSR
hierarchical_section_title: Electric locomotive / Electric locomotives around the world / Russia and former USSR
caption_attribution_description: English: Soviet electric locomotive VL60pk (ВЛ60пк), c. 1960. Русский: Электровоз ВЛ60.
context_page_description: An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a battery or a supercapacitor.
  Electric locomotives with on-board fueled prime movers, such as diesel engines or gas turbines, are classed as diesel-electric or gas turbine-electric and not as electric locomotives, because the electric generator/motor combination serves only as a power transmission system.
  Electric locomotives benefit from the high efficiency of electric motors, often above 90%. Additional efficiency can be gained from regenerative braking, which allows kinetic energy to be recovered during braking to put power back on the line. Newer electric locomotives use AC motor-inverter drive systems that provide for regenerative braking. Electric locomotives are quiet compared to diesel locomotives since there is no engine and exhaust noise and less mechanical noise. The lack of reciprocating parts means electric locomotives are easier on the track, reducing track maintenance.
context_section_description: Russia and other countries of the former USSR have a mix of 3,000 V DC and 25 kV AC for historical reasons.
  The special "junction stations" (around 15 over the former USSR - Vladimir, Mariinsk near Krasnoyarsk etc.) have wiring switchable from DC to AC. Locomotive replacement is essential at these stations and is performed together with the contact wiring switching.
  Most Soviet, Czech (the USSR ordered passenger electric locomotives from Škoda), Russian and Ukrainian locomotives can operate on AC or DC only. For instance, VL80 is an AC machine, with VL10 a DC version. There were some half-experimental small series like VL82, which could switch from AC to DC and were used in small amounts around the city of Kharkov in Ukraine. Also, the latest Russian passenger locomotive EP10 is dual-system.
  Historically, 3,000 V DC was used for simplicity. The first experimental track was in Georgian mountains, then the suburban zones of the largest cities were electrified for EMUs - very advantageous due to much better dynamic of such a train compared to the steam one, which is important for suburban service with frequent stops. Then the large mountain line between Ufa and Chelyabinsk was electrified.
  For some time, electric railways were only considered to be suitable for suburban or mountain lines. In around 1950, a decision was made (according to legend, by Joseph Stalin) to electrify the highly loaded plain prairie line of Omsk-Novosibirsk. After this, electrifying the major railroads at 3,000 V DC became mainstream.
  25 kV AC started in the USSR in around 1960, when the industry managed to build the rectifier-based AC-wire DC-motor locomotive (all Soviet and Czech AC locomotives were such; only the post-Soviet ones switched to electronically controlled induction motors). The first major line with AC power was Mariinsk-Krasnoyarsk-Tayshet-Zima; the lines in European Russia like Moscow-Rostov-on-Don followed.
  In the 1990s, some DC lines were rebuilt as AC to allow the usage of the huge 10 MWt AC locomotive of VL85. The line around Irkutsk is one of them. The DC locomotives freed by this rebuild were transferred to the St Petersburg region.
  The Trans-Siberian Railway has been partly electrified since 1929, entirely since 2002. The system is 25 kV AC 50 Hz after the junction station of Mariinsk near Krasnoyarsk, 3,000 V DC before it, and train weights are up to 6,000 tonnes.
caption: Soviet electric locomotive VL60pk (ВЛ60пк), c. 1960
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