Falcon 250

The Sokol electric train was developed at the Central Design Bureau of marine equipment Rubin . It was created jointly by about sixty enterprises, including the Central Scientific Research Institute of Marine Electrical Engineering and Technology , the Almaz shipbuilding company, and the Titran Tikhvin Transport Engineering Plant. A high-speed carriage carriage was created at VNIItransmash , studies on the strength of carriage hulls were carried out at the Academician A. N. Krylov Central Research Institute of Shipbuilding , an on-board computer control system was developed at NPO Aurora . By 2000, a prototype of the Falcon with six cars for two kinds of current, constant and alternating, with a design speed of 250 kilometers per hour was manufactured.

Tests

The Russian Academy of Sciences and VNIIZhT have prepared a conclusion on the compliance of the “Falcon” with most of the indicators approved by the Ministry of Railways for technical specifications and current international standards. Tests have confirmed the possibility of creating a modern high-speed, economical rolling stock, contact network and security systems on the Moscow-Petersburg highway. At the same time, during tests in 2001-2002, the state commission discovered 25 shortcomings ^[2] directly related to traffic safety.

During acceptance tests in June 2001, on the Doroshiha - Likhoslavl section, the electric train set a speed record of 236 km / h.

Among the shortcomings of the train, the following were noted:

1. The safety factor of fatigue resistance of welds of steel AB2-2 in the most loaded nodes of the frame of the trolley is 0.85-1.8 with a minimum acceptable rate of at least 2.0;
2. Motor cars overheat brake discs up to 500 degrees with a permissible overheating of not more than 80 degrees. Failures in the operation of the anti-lock (anti-union) system lead to unauthorized filling of the brake cylinders with air, which threatens to jam the wheel pairs. The design and materials of the disc brake linings do not provide the required resource of 300,000 km. The drive system of the magnetic rail brake does not provide parallel releasing and holding the shoes on the rails during braking, which threatens the safety of traffic on turnouts;
3. With the existing design, the TP-250 current collector cannot be used for continuous operation;
4. Life support systems:
   1. not implemented two-level air treatment in the cabin;
   2. the noise levels in the cabin are exceeded during the operation of the air conditioner and ventilation;
   3. the required tightness of the car is not ensured;
   4. air mobility in passenger seats located near windows is 2.5 times higher than the maximum allowable;
   5. in the air of passenger compartments, the levels of maximum permissible concentrations of degradation products of polymer structural materials for car lining have been exceeded;
   6. the air duct system does not ensure passenger safety in case of fire;
   7. the thermal properties of the windows and the insulation of the cars do not meet the technical requirements.

For these and a number of other reasons, the Interdepartmental Commission concluded that commissioning of the Sokol experimental train with passengers was impossible. ^[2]

Electric train in museums and eternal parking

Until October 2012, the train was in the depot of the Titran-Express plant in Tikhvin .

Russian Railways has decided to preserve electric carriages for history, at the same time in two large railway museums - in St. Petersburg and Moscow. For this, the composition was divided into two sections ^{[3] [4]} .

On October 27, 2012, ES250 electric carriages No. 104, 105 and 112 arrived at the Museum of the History of Railway Engineering of the Moscow Railway (an exposition at the Riga Station in Moscow ) ^{[3] [4]} . Wagons No. 101, 102 and 103 on November 22 of the same year arrived at the reserve base of the Central Museum of the October Railway (Shushary village, the Locomotive Museum station of the Vitebsk direction of the October Railway ) ^[4] . In 2016, they were transported to the new site of the Museum of Railways of Russia (created on the basis of the former Museum of the October Railway), located next to the Baltic Station in St. Petersburg ^[4] .

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  during repair at the depot ТЧ-10 St. Petersburg - Moscow
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  "Falcon" when uncoupling
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  truck
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  magnetic rail brake
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  pantograph TP-250
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  cabin
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  anniversary watch with the image of the "Falcon"

• Ed. Boravskaya E.N., Shapilov E.D. High-speed electric train "Sokol" // High-speed and high-speed railway transport / I. Kovalev. - SPb: GIIPP "Art of Russia", 2001. - T. 1. - P. 143-156. - 2,000 copies. - ISBN 5-93518-012-X .

• Song of the Falcon // Lokotrans. - Stavropol, 2003. - No. 5 . - S. 24 .

• Pavel Bilevsky. FLIGHT "FALCON" // Tomorrow. - Stavropol, 2006. - No. 1 .

• Electric train "Falcon" on the website of the developer Central Design Bureau "Rubin"
• High-speed electric train "Falcon"
• References about the electric train and articles
• "Falcon" flies to the last shelter
• Flight of the Falcon
• Sapsan Moscow-St. Petersburg: back to the future or forward to the past? Historical Chronicles. Flight of the Falcon