The Alstom company has delivered the first of 40 Prima T8 AZ8A freight locomotives to Azerbaijan Railways (ADY), Alstom’s Kazakhstan office announced told the CFTS portal. The locomotive, which was built at the Electrovozborochny Zavod plant in Kazakhstan, arrived at the Balajary station (Azerbaijan) from Astana on December 7.
Alstom will now begin validation testing of the electric locomotive on the rail network of Azerbaijan Railways. The tests will last several months.
According to the company, this and the next locomotives will be operated on the Azerbaijani segment of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway route.
As reported earlier, the first Prima T8 freight locomotive produced for Azerbaijan was presented in Astana at the end of June this year.
A second electric locomotive was scheduled to be sent from the plant near Astana to Baku on December 20.
The Prima AZ8A alternating-current locomotive is designed for operation on a 1520-mm gauge rail network. Its design is based on the KZ8A locomotives that are currently in operation in Kazakhstan, but its takes the technical conditions of ADY into account.
The electric locomotive has eight axles and it is capable of speeds up to 120 km/h. According to Alstom, it is one of the most powerful electric locomotives in the world.
