TMH PRO Leased Two Class TEM28 Locomotives

On 11 February 2021, TMH PRO (TMH Promyshlennye reshenia, TMH Industrial solutions) announced that it leased two Class TEM28 diesel shunters, together with drivers and full service, to Elga-Trans. The latter is part of the Elginskoe ugolnoe mestorozhdenie (Elga coal complex) in Yakutia, in south-east Siberia, which includes a group of companies for the extraction, processing, transportation and sale of high-quality coking coals.

The Elga coal deposit is the largest coking coal deposit in Russia. At present, there are used Class 2TE116, 3TE10, TEM2 and TEM18 locomotives. TEM28-001 and 002 will operate there, too. Their lease is for eight years. Maintenance and repairs are organised by TMH PRO together with LokoTech-Promservis. If necessary, the locomotives will be sent to the latter company’s depot.

Kirill Toropov, TMH PRO General Director, said: „The use of the TEM28 locomotives at Elga-Trans is the beginning of a large project for the export of finished products from the Elga coal deposit. At present, we are preparing a new project, which includes one Class 2TE25K2M and six Class 3TE25K2M main line diesel locomotives for use there.“

Class TEM28

Class TEM28 is a new BMZ product. In April 2016, TEM28-001 was completed. These Co’Co’ locomotives are of modular construction, having five modules, incorporating the cooling equipment, the diesel-genset, the electrical equipment, the driver’s cab and the braking equipment. 

The prime mover is an 895 kW Cummins diesel, with AC/DC electric transmission, and the locomotive weighs 126 t in working order (with fuel tank and sandboxes two-thirds full), has a one-hour tractive effort of 370 kN and a continuous tractive effort of 304 kN. Top service speed is 100 km/h, length over couplings is 16,900 mm, and the locomotive is able to negotiate curves with a minimum radius of 100 m. 

With the Class TEM28, BMZ is endeavouring to offer the Russian market an alternative design of shunting locomotive. TEM28 has a design life-span of 36 years, and is expected to offer operators a saving in maintenance and fuel consumption and other operating costs, compared with other diesel shunters of similar size and specifications. The design, involving a central cab with good all-round visibility, and low bonnets, should be another factor in favour of theTEM28. 

The TEM28 is offered as an alternative to the Class TEM18DM shunter, and it could also prove attractive to operators of private industrial networks, because the TR TS 001/2011 standard is also necessary for rail vehicles to be used on these. 

On 31 October 2017 BMZ received a certificate for compliance with TR TS 001/2011 for the Class TEM28. This certificate entitles BMZ to build and sell 100 TEM28s over a five-year period until October 2022. Preliminary plans for 2018 involved the construction of five more Class TEM28s, but the batch production has not started yet, waiting for the respective orders.