The NS 2400 was a class of 130 Bo'Bo' (Two bogies, each with four driven wheels) diesel-electric locomotives used by the Nederlandsche Spoorwegen. They were a standard design of the French locomotive factory Alsthom. The 130th of the class, NS 2530, had some modifications made to the design.
| NS 2400 | |
|---|---|
| by Supersnel11 | |
| Price | ƒ31.000 |
| Level | 10 |
| Statistics | |
| Type | Mixed |
| Top Speed | 80 km/h |
| Weight | 60 tons |
| Capacity | 400 tons |
| Passenger Capacity | 1 first class 1 second class |
| Length | 12,5 meters |
Liveries
The NS 2400 is available in Nederlandsche Spoorwegen brown and
Historical details
NS years
Decision to buy
After WWII and the restoration work the railways did, N.S. strived to continue and speed up its pre-war modernization plan. In an early stage of this plan, diesel-electric traction was chosen as a suitable replacement for steam locomotives whilst they worked on electrifying the lines. As such, the diesel-electric NS 2000 series was taken over from the U.S. army and orders for diesel-electric express locomotives , diesel-electric shunters and pre-war requests for electric engines were approved in 1947. In the early 1950s, the state of most remaining steam locomotives was so dire that, in order to continue services on yet to be electrified lines, a replacement for those machines had to come soon. The original plans were for 100 NS 2200 to take over passenger and freight trains, though this was changed to 150 before being changed again to 100 NS 2200 and 50 NS 2400.
Replacing steam
In 1952, these 50 locomotives were ordered at Alsthom. Noteworthy is that Alsthom had designed, but not yet build, this particular design at the time NS ordered them. In a sense, NS helped it become a reality. Around the time of the series being delivered, more and more steam locomotives were withdrawn as the lackluster maintenance and old age of the machines made them too dangerous to operate. This was accounted for by having the deliveries of diesel-electrics match the planned withdrawal dates of the steam engines, but the plan failed as not enough steam locomotives, only 115, were operational at the end, so an additional 50 NS 2400 locomotives were ordered. An additional 30 were ordered when NS realised that the electrification progressed too slowly, giving the series its final size of 130. The last of which, NS 2530, was altered slightly. By 1955, 96 of them had been approved with 90 being in service. In 1971 the first 2400s received the new yellow-grey 'home style'. NS 2501 would be the last brown NS 2400, though its numberplates were removed and replaced with the painted numbers all yellow-grey 2400s already had.
Service years
The NS 2401-2409, 2411-2415 and 2417-2422 were delivered in the blue livery with grey bogies and fuel tanks and red buffer beams. NS 2410 was the first to be delivered in the NS brown livery which was given to every NS 2400 after NS 2422.
In the beginning, these diesels were mostly used to relieve steam locomotives from goods trains, though they would pull an occasional passenger trains, taken over from the NS 2200, which could not be delivered in time. The class could often be found on the "slijptrein" (sharpening train) which was used to reshape worn out track and had two tenders of the NS 4000 series for water, a little reminder of days past. Their most common jobs were goods trains and some occasional shunting. This they kept doing throughout the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s.
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In 1971, the first of the class were repainted into the newly introduced yellow-grey 'home style' of the Dutch Railways. NS 2501 would be the last brown 2400, though it would have its number plates replaced with painted numbers to match those of the already yellow-grey 2400s.
The first locomotives to be withdrawn were the NS 2460, NS 2473 and 2476, which faced their end in 1974. A year later an official plan to put the locomotives aside was put in place, based on the NS policy of withdrawing locomotives after roughly 30 years of service. The 2400s were to be set aside in 1981-1987, with the luckier few receiving their lasts revisions in 1981 and scrapping starting in 1982. This mostly happened, though 30 of the locomotives were already set aside in 1976 to save money on the decreasing goods traffic. Their last services and goodbye rides happened throughout 1990-1992. In early 1990, a total of 37 locomotives were still operational with 43 still in service, though 6 of those would be withdrawn in January. Various engines were send to the scrapyards, including 2401, in August. Only 23 remained on January 1st, 1991. Nine more would be sent to the scrapyard five days later. In June 1991, a goodbye ride would be held with NS 2450 painted in an approximation of NS brown and NS 241 in an approximation of NS blue, NS 2444 was kept in yellow-grey. The goodbye ride would be repeated in September as the first was not very popular, this time joined by the once again lilac NS 2530. The last were withdrawn in 1992.
Post-NS years
Other companies
In 1976, seven locomotives were sold to contractor company Volker to work on construction works in Saudi-Arabia. These were given large red numbers (101-107) on the front and sides of the cab, as no livery specifications were provided yet. Additionally, the top of the roofs were painted white to shield the drivers from the desert sun a little. Four NS drivers moved to Saudi-Arabia in 1977 to operate those seven locomotives, as the Saudi-Arabians had no experience with the design.
Once the construction works were done, four were sold to the Greek Archirodon with the remaining three being scrapped. The German firm Elisabeth Layritz bought NS 2426 and NS 2500 in 1988. NS 2500 was quickly sold again to Caraboni in Italy, who used it to electrify lines. What happened to the other two 2400 from Archirodon is unknown, but they are likely scrapped by now. No jobs could be found for 2426 so it was scrapped in 1990. In the early 90s, ex-NS 2500 was sold to Bonciani, another Italian company, who had it stationed at their home base in Milan-West for a while. It was seen in active service in 2007 and 2008.
50 NS 2400s were sold to the SNCF, the French railways, to work on their highspeed lines. Throughout 1990-1992, NS would deliver 2-4 locomotives a month, including 6 non-operational locos for spare parts.
Heritage
Currently, seven 2400s are preserved. Only six will be mentioned here as 2530 has its own page.
| Number(s) | Owned by | Operational | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| NS 2412, SNCF 62412 | Veluwsche Stoomtrein Maatschappij (VSM) | No | NS blue livery |
| NS 2413 | Stichting Behoud Alsthom 2400 (SBA2400) | No | Progress of restoration unknown |
| NS 2424, SNCF 62424, VFLI 662424 | Stoomtrein Goes-Borsele (SGB) | No | NS brown livery |
| NS 2454, SNCF 62454 | Stichting 2454 Crew (link only in Dutch) | Yes | NS yellow-grey livery |
| NS 2459 | VSM | Yes | NS brown livery |
| NS 2498 | Nederlands Spoorwegmuseum (NSM) | No | NS brown livery |
Technical Details
The NS 2400 were 12.5 metres long, 3.8 metres high had 2.9 metres wide. They weighed 90 tonnes and had an axle load of 15 tonnes. They could hold 3100 litres of fuel.
They used four motors (Alsthom TA537) as traction engines, which are connected in parallel. Each traction engine could produce 200 horsepower at 625 rpm. The continuous power is 180 horsepower (130 kilowatt) at a maximum of 2,200 RPM, a maximum voltage of 1,000 Volts and a maximum amperage of 240. As a diesel engine, the locomotives received an 'MGO V12 SHR' which had 12 V-shaped cylinders with a main and secondary generator. These could output 850 horsepower at 1,500 rpm. With these engines, they could reach 80 km/h.
Two locomotives, 2416 and 2432 had a 16-cylinder diesel engine. The additional cylinders increased its power output to 1,000 horsepower at 1,500 rpm which resulted in an additional 400 kg of traction at the cost of two tons of additional weight. The two locomotives were put in service as 2501 and 2502 until the delivery of NS 2500 approached, when they were renumbered to 2551 and 2552. In 1958 they received the standard 12-cylinder engines and were given their original numbers back.
Trivia
- The NS 2400 has a limited halloween version, the Scrapped NS 2400.
- Despite being labelled and sold differently in game, the NS 2530 was considered a part of the NS 2400 locomotive fleet, and not a separate series.
- The NS 2400 is the only mainline diesel locomotive to not feature a stripe along the body.
- The Brown livery has a stripe along the chassis, and the Blue livery does not have a stripe at all.
- The NS 2400 is only 10 tons weaker than the NS 3700, a 4 cylinder express locomotive, which shows how powerful this low level locomotive is.* In version 0.4.44, there was a snow plow added to the NS 2400 during the winter season of 2021.
- Strangely, the snow plow has not returned for any subsequent winter updates.
- The NS 2400 has been available since version 0.1, the game's launch.