SLR M9 866 Hikkaduwa 8040 051110
SLR M9 Class #866, an ugly modern Alstom 'Prima' AD32C, powers out of Hikkaduwa on Friday 5th November 2010. It's working train 8040, the 05:00 Kandy - Galle, from the mountainous inland down the West coast South.
Ten of these relatively big Co-Co contraptions were introduced in 2000 from France. Unsuited to Sri Lankan conditions (not simple and robust enough) and difficult to maintain (complicated, expensive AC traction and medium speed engine, oh, and French!), they've proven very unreliable. By 2006 only three remained in service, one being derailment/fire damaged, the others dumped awaiting attention. A program of rehabilitation started in 2010 has seen a further three returned to service with the help of the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Modern Technologies - he of the sci-fi, inventor and futurist fame, I kid you not - a serious institute for research and technology transfer.
For a modern loco they do sound rather good, being fitted with an unsilenced Ruston 12-cylinder RK215T power unit of 2400 hp @ 1000 rpm (not the 1800 hp often erroneously quoted). One wonders what they would be like at the full 3220 hp output the design's actually capable of!
SLR M9 866 Hikkaduwa 8040 051110
SLR M9 Class #866, an ugly modern Alstom 'Prima' AD32C, powers out of Hikkaduwa on Friday 5th November 2010. It's working train 8040, the 05:00 Kandy - Galle, from the mountainous inland down the West coast South.
Ten of these relatively big Co-Co contraptions were introduced in 2000 from France. Unsuited to Sri Lankan conditions (not simple and robust enough) and difficult to maintain (complicated, expensive AC traction and medium speed engine, oh, and French!), they've proven very unreliable. By 2006 only three remained in service, one being derailment/fire damaged, the others dumped awaiting attention. A program of rehabilitation started in 2010 has seen a further three returned to service with the help of the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Modern Technologies - he of the sci-fi, inventor and futurist fame, I kid you not - a serious institute for research and technology transfer.
For a modern loco they do sound rather good, being fitted with an unsilenced Ruston 12-cylinder RK215T power unit of 2400 hp @ 1000 rpm (not the 1800 hp often erroneously quoted). One wonders what they would be like at the full 3220 hp output the design's actually capable of!