NS 500, 600 & 700

NS 500, 600 & 700
NS 500, 600 & 700
Price	ƒ180.000
Level	44
Statistics
Type	Shunter
Top Speed	42 km/h
Weight	47 tons
Capacity	560 tons
Length	9,1 meters

The NS 500, 600 & 700 were three classes of British-built Dutch Cde (0-6-0DE) diesel locomotives. Together, the classes had 125 members

Variants

The NS 500, 600 & 700 are available in standard Nederlandsche Spoorwegen green, NS green with a stripe, the Feijenoord depot livery with hazard stripes, a prototype livery and a War Department livery. The WD livery is only accessible through the War Department gamepass.

Historical detail

War Department

In order to increase its tractive power in WWII, the United Kingdom began building a 0-6-0 diesel-electric shunter based on the Class D3/6 of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS). An initial batch of 20 were built by the Derby Works in 1945, 14 of which were destined for the War Department. Eventually, 100 more would be built for both the LMS and British Rail, which would make it their Class 11.

The War Department shunters would eventually make their way to the Netherlands to aide the allied troops near the end of the war.

NS

The Nederlandsche Spoorwegen liked these engines so much that they decided to buy 10 engines from the War Department. These locomotives, WD 70260-70269, would enter service as NS 501-510. NS continued to order more of the type, so much that nearly 100 additional locomotives were produced by English Electric, which made them slightly different from the Class 11's produced by Derby Works.

The locomotives were divided among three different series based on some technical specification:

locomotives without an airbrake, and thus only suitable for shunting, joined the first 10 in the 500 series (501-510, 511-545);
locomotives that did have an airbrake, and could thus pull short trains, were put in the 600 series (601-665);
15 locomotives were delivered without engine, got a Dutch one and were put in the 700 series (701-715).

The 501-510 would enter service in their WD grey livery, and do shunting work at large stations like Utrecht, Zwolle and Feijenoord. The rest of them would be delivered throughout the years, with the last arriving in 1957. By then, the 700s were exclusively used at Feijenoord and the 500/600 were spread throughout the Netherlands, to the point where any station or depot where trains had to be assembled or disassembled had at least one of them.

The locomotives were nicknamed 'Hippels' because of their jumpy tendencies, though they were nicknamed 'Bakkies' in Amsterdam, after their shape.

The first to be withdrawn were the 700s in the early 1970s, with more following in the '80s, due to a severe drop in goods traffic and charters. Despite this enough surived into the 1990s so that 27 of the 600s were rebuilt to work with radio controls throughout 1990-1992. This was done so they could continue working in the Waalhaven harbour in Rotterdam.

The locomotives that were not withdrawn in the 70s were given the new so-called 'home style', a yellow and grey livery with painted numbers instead of number plates. The repaints happened from 1972-1978.

Post-NS

Currently, 19 ex-NS locomotives are preserved at various heritage railways. A handful of 600s are still in service at various industries (such as Railpro and Rail Force One in the Netherlands).

Preserved NS 500 & 600
Number(s)	Owned by	Operational	Notes
NS 508, WD 70269	Nederlands Spoorweg Museum (NSM)	No
NS 512	NSM	No	Estimated stripe livery
NS 521	Stoomtrein Goes Borsele (SGB)	Yes
NS 532	Veluwsche Stoomtrein Maatschappij (VSM)	Yes
NS 604	VSM	No	Yellow-grey livery, used for parts
NS 605, NS 674	NSM	Yes	Livery looks like a failed art project, once rebuilt for radio control
NS 609, Strukton 300609	Museum Stadskanaal Rail (STAR)	No
NS 612, NS 677	Zuid-Limburgse Stoomtrein Maatschappij (ZLSM)	No	Yellow-grey livery, once rebuilt for radio control, used for parts
NS 618	VSM	No
NS 625	Allegedly at the Ribble Steam Railway (RBR)	Unknown
NS 629	NSM	No	Yellow-grey livery
NS 636	VSM	Yes	Stripe livery
NS 639	ZLSM	Yes
NS 650, Strukton 300650	VSM	Yes	Strukton yellow livery
NS 653	Allegedly at the Weardale Railway (WR)	Unknown
NS 658	Stoom Stichting Nederland (Dutch link) (SSN)	No	Yellow-grey livery
NS 660	Museum Buurtspoorweg (MBS)	Yes	Stripe livery
NS 662, RRF 5	2454CREW	No	Yellow-grey livery
NS 663	RBR	Unknown	NS yellow-grey livery

Technical details

The NS 501-510 were 888 cm long, 256,5 cm wide, 379,7 cm tall and weighed 48,2 tonnes. They could carry 3.000 litres of fuel. They were fitted with an English Electric six-cylinder, 4-stroke, 6KT diesel motors that powered two traction motors of the English Electric EE506 type. Those were axle-hung, nose-suspended and force-ventilated with a 21.7:1 double reduction gear drive. The main generator is an English Electric EE801 type that could produce 441 A at 430 Volts. This allowed a maximum speed of 32 km/h. They had an airbrake that only worked on the locomotive.

The other locomotives of the 500 series, 600 series and 700 series were slightly longer at 906,8 cm, slightly taller at 380 cm and slightly lighter at 47 tonnes. .

The rest of the 500 and 600 series were otherwise identical, though the 600 also had a continuous air brake.

The NS 700 were delivered without an engine, though did have a generator. They were given Stork-Thomassen 400 horsepower two-stroke four-cylinder diesel engine of the 4 STT 24/36 type. They did not have a continuous air brake, though were fitted with a Westinghouse compressor that would allow such a brake to be installed.

The class received a blue flashing light to increase their visibility on level crossings, which would be replaced with a red light in 1983.

Trivia

In version 0.5.12, there was a snow plow added to the NS 500, 600 & 700 during the winter season of 2022. The plow was only available on the Feijenoord livery.
The standard, striped and war department livery have been available since the game launched, version 0.1.
- The prototype and Feijenoord livery were added in version 0.4.33.