In the twenties and thirties, a need arose on the railways of the USSR to increase the speed of trains intended for the transportation of passengers.
Steam locomotive IS-20.
Experts in the history of technology probably know that the first three-cylinder steam locomotive in the USSR was assembled in 1924. Engineers designed this steam engine based on the SV courier locomotive (1914). The locomotive, which received the abbreviation SU (“U” means “improved”), remained one of the best steam locomotives of the Soviet era for 30 years.
The SU steam locomotive, about thirteen meters long and weighing almost ninety tons, could reach a speed of 117 km / h. Its adhesion weight was 54 tons.
It is worth clarifying here that the adhesion weight especially affects the performance of the train. This term is understood as the sum of loads from the coupling wheels of a locomotive with rails. Too low adhesion weight with a high power of the locomotive and with a large weight of the entire train can lead to disruption of the adhesion between the rail and the wheel.
In the USSR, after the civil war, the flow of passengers increased every year. The country developed rapidly. The development of railway transportation did not stand still either.
IS-20 passenger steam locomotive.
In 1932, on the basis of the Felix Dzerzhinsky freight steam locomotive, the most powerful passenger steam locomotive in the Soviet Union, the Iosif Stalin or IS-20, was designed and built at the Kolomna plant. The number 20 stands for the axle load in tonnes - the largest that existed for a locomotive at that time. Coupling weight - eighty-two tons. Length - almost seventeen meters, empty weight - one hundred and eighteen tons. The locomotive developed a design speed of 115 km / h.
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At the end of 1935, the serial production of "Joseph Stalin" was entrusted to the Voroshilovgrad steam locomotive plant. In the new workshops of this plant, it was possible to build locomotives of the so-called "American design" (with block cylinders and block frames). The change of the plant took place due to the fact that the Kolomensky plant lacked the necessary equipment for the production of a whole series of steam locomotives of this type.
The power of the steam locomotive, produced in 1932, was 3,150 hp. With the joint efforts of the Novosibirsk Institute of Railway Engineers and the Moscow Aviation Institute, the power increased by 250 hp, as a result of which the locomotive was able to squeeze out a speed of 155 km / h. The specialists used a streamlined casing and thereby achieved a reduction in air resistance.
In 1937 in Paris, the IS-20-241 with a fairing casing bypassed competitors at the World Exhibition and won the Grand Prix.
To reduce the weight of the structure, high strength steel was used, welding was used, the driving mechanism was made of alloy steel.
In the spring of 1957, the IS-20 steam locomotive with a special train set a speed record of 175 km / h.
From the moment of release until 1942 inclusive, about 650 cars were built. At the time of Khrushchev, the name of the IS was changed to FDp, and in the 70s, the IS trains were written off for recycling.
The only surviving Felix FDp-578 (IS) in 1982 climbed on a temporary rail track to a pedestal, which was installed for him near the railway station in Kiev. This was his last route, and there he is to this day.
The surviving representative of the IS-20 series in Kiev, Ukraine.
There is an interesting legend. The front section of another train (FDp-2549) sits on the surface of a huge concrete foundation at the Bryansk-Lgovsky station. It is assumed that the entire train is in the concrete.