Source: Miroslav Petr - prototypy.cz
Source: Tovární Snímek - prototypy.cz
Source: Karel Vendler - prototypy.cz
Source: Karel Vendler - prototypy.cz
Czechoslovakia: S 479.1
Also known as: E 479.1, Type 40E
Railway companies: ČSD - Czechoslovak State Railways
1959
April 8th
- 2x units with silicon (diode) rectifiers registered E479.0;
- 2x units with mercury (ignitron) rectifiers registered E479.1.
The design and body of the locomotive is largely derived from the E 469.1 and E 499.1 series.
Sources: http://www.prototypy.cz/?rada=S479.0
1962
The second prototype, registration E479.102 (Škoda factory number 4356), also leaves the factory before the end of the year. Following the problems detected on previous E 479.0 and E479.101 prototypes with the motors air cooling system allowing rain water to penetrate in the engine room, this unit is modified from the factory and fitted with open grills on the sides.
The Czechoslovak State Railways (ČSD) refuse to take over these units (too complicated, faulty and heavy) and they remain the property of Škoda. In addition, the production of the S489.0 locomotive series was already planned.
These prototypes are not the only ignitron rectifiers locomotives built by Škoda at the time. Following the demand from Bulgarian State Railways (BDZ) for electric locomotives with regenerative braking and in order to avoid imports from France and Germany, the Škoda factory is entrusted with the accelerated production of such machines in February 1961, originally with the delivery date of the first 10x units at the turn of 1961/2. These locomotives, registered as E41, are built without a proper prototype development and long-term testing. Thus these units have very serious problems (including locomotive fires) and from 1965 are reconstructed by Škoda with silicon rectifiers and without regenerative braking.
Sources: http://www.prototypy.cz/?rada=S479.1
1965
The first prototype in the original design probably did not drive much by its own power and from about 1965 stood parked on a rented track in the railway station Nezvěstice. The production plant gradually took spare parts from it (e.g. pantographs - see below) and during possible tests the machine served only as a towed vehicle.
Sources: http://www.prototypy.cz/?rada=S479.1
1965
July 1st
Sources: http://www.prototypy.cz/?rada=S479.1
1968
In this set, the former prototype E479.102 "lived" in 1990, when the entire braking set was canceled and scrapped in the first half of 1992 in Beroun's Kovošrot.
Sources: http://www.prototypy.cz/?rada=S479.1
1969
During the reconstructions carried out in 1969 and 1970, the electrical part of the locomotive was completely redesigned and its cabinet was reconstructed to an "open design". New semi-pantographic pantographs were installed on the roof of the locomotive
were used in the then Czechoslovakia for the first time.
Above all, however, the original high-voltage tap-controlled autotransformer of the locomotive was replaced by a transformer with three traction windings with constant transmission, which was then gradually connected by phase control of partial thyristor stages by means of a specially connected thyristor converter. The problems of de-excitation, electric braking and reversing were solved as follows: The existing series traction motors were replaced with foreign exciters with a rated excitation current corresponding to the rated current of one thyristor (max. 180 A). Each motor thus had a reversing, fully controlled thyristor excitation circuit.
The locomotive, "old-new" marked as S479.101, was then tested as leased in normal operation at CSD from 21.2.1973 to 26.3.1973, when it appeared defective in the thyristors. After repairs in the production plant, tests at ČSD continued on June 7, 1973. As part of the tests, the locomotive ran in heavy freight transport between Pilsen and the Sokolov brown coal basin. After the end of the tests, the prototype S479.101 was again parked for many years at the Nezvěstice station, where Škoda already had the already mentioned stand for testing AC electric locomotives.
The experience gained from this conversion was then applied, for example, to the serial production of S 458.0 shunting locomotives (now the 210 series).
Disposal of the prototype S479.101 took place in 1988 in Kovošrot in Pilsen.
Latest update on the 11th of August 2020 at 21:27
Contributor(s): Tudor C.
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