The NS 2000 was a class of 18 American Bo'Bo' (Two driven bogies with four wheels each) diesel locomotives used by the Nederlandsche Spoorwegen (NS). It is the diesel-counterpart of the starter locomotive NS 1300.
| NS 2000 | |
|---|---|
| by Supersnel11 | |
| Price | Free |
| Statistics | |
| Type | Mixed |
| Top Speed | 75 km/h |
| Weight | 63 tons |
| Capacity | 360 tons |
| Passenger Capacity | 1 first class 1 second class |
| Length | 13,1 meters |
Liveries
The NS 2000 is available in Nederlandsche Spoorwegen green and USATC gray. The second livery is only accessible through the War Department gamepass. It had an snow plough livery during the winter updates of 2020.
Historical details
General history
Baldwin Locomotive Works designed the 65-DE-19, which was built for the US army by Whitcomb Locomotive Works, with Westinghouse providing the electrical parts. They were shipped to Europe in 1943 and 1944, with the first 86 going to Naples, Italy. The Military Railway Service numbered these as their series 1300.
The locomotives that were sent after the first batch were to the UK, with France also becoming a viable destination after mid-1944. They were mainly used in Southern Europe and the Middle-East.
After WWII, the Americans took 118 of these back with them and the locomotives that stayed behind were collected at an army dump site in Gennevilliers, France. Of those, 20 were sold to NS, though the majority wasn't sold and returned to the US to be used in the war against Japan. This never happened because the war ended sooner than expected. The locomotives were sold to companies in Canada, Cuba, Mexico and the US. Whitcomb Locomotive Works also bought some and rebuilt them to the new 70-DE-26 type.
The Dutch years
NS 600
The first of these locomotives in the Netherlands were the USATC 7976 and 7986, which arrived in Eindhoven from Belgium. They were used for shunting and pulling night trains. They worked in Eindhoven from February to March, when they were replaced by an S160 locomotive of the USATC. Following the replacement, they were brought to Nijmegen depot. 7976 was the second to go to Nijmegen but didn't stay long, as it would move to Boxmeer to replace a small War Department diesel shunter of the same type as the NS 160. By May, the two were stored at Nijmegen. Three others would be stored there too in June. All five would be sent to the army dumpsite in Gennevilliers.
NS bought 20 of the type from that dump site in 1946, to combat their rolling stock shortage. 16 arrived at the main workshops in Tilburg in July, 1946, where they were stored whilst awaiting transportation to Haarlem. The other four were also transported, but stayed behind at the Belgium-France border because they did not have the right brakes. They were transported to the Netherlands eventually so all 20 arrived in Haarlem in August by a convoy consisting of 10 locomotives, four goods wagons and 10 more locomotives.
After a check-up and revision, 11 were put into service in 1946-1947. USATC 7961 was chosen to be the part supplier for the others. Due to their low tractive effort, NS put them in the 600 series, intending to use them as shunters. Because the Dutch had troubles determining which side of the locomotive was the front, at some point, they received a white line on the front half, reminiscent of the steam that came out of the front of a steam locomotive. The other eight (NS 601/03/05/07/08/10/16 & 616) were stored at various places for some years, awaiting new motors to replace the damaged wartime motors with bad cooling systems. However, NS failed to solve the cooling system troubles, so they were never used with their 600 numbers.
The locomotives worked from the depots Zwolle and Eindhoven, from where they shunted and pulled trains in the East and South of the Netherlands. They could drive with up to four units in unison, though every locomotive had to be started up independently. Because there was no separate scheduling for diesel and steam, the 600s joined the steam locomotive rotation. From December 6th, 1946, they drove two daily oil trains from Schoonebeek to Zwolle's shunting yard. The oil trains eventually grew too heavy so they were replaced in February of 1948 by the NS 3400.
Although they pulled some goods trains in the area, after 1947 they were mainly used as shunting. Irregularly, they would pull passenger trains from Zwolle to one of the stations on the route. Sometimes they would even drive the whole length of the routes as double header with an NS 1700. This was partially because the amount of available 600s bounced around between three and eight throughout 1947. A year later this was between four and seven and they were given a passenger train between Zwolle and Kampen, though a steam locomotive would take over the services when the winter schedule began. In 1949, between three and five of them would be available for service at any given time and they were put on shunting services exclusively.
In 1950, only NS 612 is available for service. More became available throughout 1951, with a whole five available again in 1952.
NS 2000
In 1953, all 600s received new engines and were renumbered to the 2000 series in accordance with an NS policy to have non-shunters numbered above 2000. NS 603 was ordered to be cannibalised for parts given the lack of severe parts and was thus never received an updated number. To prevent a gap in the numbering, 619 was renumbered to 2003.
With the introduction of the summer schedule on May 17th, 1953, six of the class (NS 2002/04/06/09/11 & 2017) are available. They were stationed at the depots Eindhoven, Hengelo and Zwolle. They were put on oil trains again, this time from Schoonebeek to Almelo, replacing the NS 3400s that originally replaced them. They pulled the oil trains with at least two locomotives. Because they lost the ability to drive as multiple units, they drove in double headers with a driver present in both locomotives.
With the winter schedule of '53, they were stationed at the depots Goes, Eindhoven, Hengelo, Utrecht & Zwolle, though the locomotives stationed at Hengelo and Utrecht would be moved to Zwolle in January of 1954. In March, the whole series was available for services and the Eindhoven locomotives would move to Zwolle as well. At the end of the summer service, the one locomotive from Goes would join the other 17 at Zwolle.
In January, 1955, four would leave Zwolle and go to Eindhoven and later that year, six would go to Watergraafsmeer. They would pull trains that were meant to be given to the NS 2200. By the start of the winter services, the entire class was stationed at Watergraafsmeer. The NS 2400 had replaced them in Eindhoven and Zwolle. At Watergraafsmeer, less trains were available for them. By 1958, only five were left. The 2000s lost these by August and were used as reserves. Their last jobs were to drive bike trains in 1959. These were separate trains for the bikes of holiday-goers that went to the beaches or Frisian islands.
Withdrawal
The first locomotive to be withdrawn was USATC 7961, used for parts, in 1947. The second was NS 603 in 1953 after not receiving a new engine. In April of 1960 the NS 2002/04/06/10/11 & 2015 were sold to a scrapyard. The 2012 and 2018 were sold to the same scrapyard in May. Another five (NS 2003/05/07/08 & 2017 were sold in November. The remaining locomotives were scrapped in 1961.
Heritage
SGB
Although non of the original 20 locomotives NS purchased survived, four of the design did. Among these is USATC 7989 which worked at a cement factory until 2005. The Dutch heritage railway Stoomtrein Goes-Borsele bought this locomotives after it became available in the middle of plans of buying a more expensive one from another location in the US. The locomotive began its trip to the Netherlands in 2017 and arrived that same year. The locomotive will eventually be painted NS green and receive the number 620, as the unofficial 20th member of the old NS 600 class.
VSM
The Veluwsche Stoomtrein Maatschappij found a listing on the internet of a locomotive of the type 65-DE-19A, that had worked at the Bethlehem Steel Mill in Lackawanna, New York until 2004 as 'Remote Controlled 66' in an orange livery. It was one of the locomotive Whitcomb bought and turned into the 70-DE-26 type around 1945. After a weeklong correspondence it was decided that the logistics to get it to the Netherlands would be too complicated and costly. Communications restarted in 2015; the owner did not want to see the engine scrapped if it could end up at a museum. In January of 2018, the plans were in order and transport started in early April to arrive late May. By the end of May it was painted NS green and given the number 2019.
Technical details
The NS 2000 were originally fitted with: Two 300 horsepower 6-cylinder 6-DCS-1879 motors from The Buda Company. It had a Lanova-supercharger and two Gardner Denver-compressor, type ADR 8002, with a capacity of 1.500 litres a minute. The engine has two main generators of the Westinghouse type 197-A, which deliver 200 kW to four Westinghouse-traction engines, type 970-A. When starting the engines, the main generators acted as a starter motor. Two Westinghouse auxiliary generators, type YG-41-B, provide the low voltage in the locomotive. They had a power of 2 kW and delivered a maximum voltage of 40 volts. The low voltage is used as control current, for the operation of the locomotive, for charging the batteries and for the external field of the main generator. The locomotives were 13,052 metres long, 3,840 metres tall, weighed 59 tons and could hold 3.000 litres of fuel.
After they were fitted with new engines in 1953, they became 13,122 meters long and weighed 63 tons, as a result of the Thomassen Frichs-type 6 Fe motors. These had a power of 300 horsepower at 1.100 RPM with a Büchli-supercharger. These motors also had six cylinders. They were cooled by two Sirocco-fans. The first fan cooled motor 1, 2 and the resistances. The second fan cooled motor 3 and 4. In the same rebuild, the main generators were replaced with two Westinghouse type W 197-A. The compressor created the air pressure used for braking, the horns and other air-using systems.
The locomotives had seven gears that could be used in either direction. The direction controller had to be in neutral to start up the locomotive. If the motor was cold, the cool water had to be heated. This was done with a kerosine burner in the cooling water system.
The bogies had a wheelbase of 2134 mm. The wheelbase between the bogies was 6960 mm. The wheels originally had a diameter of 1067 mm, but were later replaced with wheels of a 1100 mm diameter
Trivia
- The NS 2000 is the starter diesel locomotive, capable of running freight or passenger trains for low level players.
- The NS 2000 was a freight only locomotive on release, but in version 0.4.53 the locomotive was changed to mixed.
- The NS 2000 is one of three American locomotives in the game. (USATC S100, USATC S160)
- The NS 2000 is the only American mixed locomotive.
- In version 0.3, there was a snow plow added to the NS 2000 during the winter season of 2020.
- Strangely, the snow plow has not returned for any subsequent winter updates.
- The NS 2000 has been available since the game's launch, version 0.1, in both liveries.
Gallery
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The NS 2000 with Goods Wagons glides pass as the sun rises.
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Goods Wagons runs over a bridge during daytime.
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The NS 2000 with its plough.
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