EP200

Designed for driving passenger trains on existing sections of railways. High running and dynamic qualities of the electric locomotive are ensured through the use of the carriage (from TEP80 ) with two four-axle carts of the original design with supporting frame suspension of brushless traction motors and traction gearboxes (two-stage spring suspension with coil springs and hydraulic vibration dampers). Safety standards and working conditions for locomotive crews are provided by shock absorbing devices in the frontal parts of the body, high-strength windshields with electric heating, cab heaters and air conditioners, and an environmentally friendly sanitary unit.

The experimental electric locomotives EP200-0001 (plant No. 2718) and EP200-002 (plant No. 2719) were manufactured at OJSC Holding Company Kolomensky Zavod ^{[3] [4]} . According to reports, the manufacture of electric locomotives was completed in 1997 ^[5] (although 1996 is indicated on the nameplates) ^{[3] [4]} .

The equipment for this electric locomotive was designed and manufactured in Russia ( Novocherkassk Electric Locomotive Plant , JSC Electric Rectifier, Saransk, JSC Transformer, Togliatti). Traction electric motors were manufactured at Novocherkassk Electric Locomotive Plant OJSC. Traction transformer manufactured by Transformer OJSC.

The electric locomotive has synchronous (due to operation on the electric locomotive only complete with semiconductor valves also called valve) traction motors and asynchronous motors of auxiliary drives. The use of synchronous motors eliminated the need to use imported power transistors or lockable thyristors , making it possible to dispense with domestic non-lockable thyristors.

Thyristor inverters are supplied with direct current from a traction transformer through adjustable thyristor converters, similar in scheme to converters of electric locomotives VL80 ^R , EP1 . At a speed of more than 10 km / h, thyristors are locked by reverse voltage due to the counter-emf of the engine. At low speed, when the counter-EMF is small, the inverter thyristors are not powered directly from the rectifiers, but from the capacitors, and self-locking occurs after the discharge of the capacitors. The capacitors before each cycle are charged with a voltage of 1500 V.

Electric locomotives were tested for a long time at the VNIIZhT experimental ring in Shcherbinka. At the beginning of August 2002 , both electric locomotives were spotted on this ring. According to reports, electric locomotives were returned to eliminate deficiencies and for further tests. In 2004 , the electric locomotive EP200-0001 was transferred for permanent operation at the Vyazma depot of the Moscow Railway , but it was soon returned to the Kolomensky Zavod, where it stood until 2009 . A little later, the electric locomotive EP200-002 also went through trial operation at the Vyazma depot on the Vyazma-Smolensk section with the Smolensk-Moscow train attached to it. The overall reliability of the locomotive remained extremely unsatisfactory, so the trips were carried out exclusively with the emergency ChS4 ^T and accompanied by technical specialists.

According to the test results for 2009, the first electric locomotive was written off with the wording “Russian Railways does not need this type of electric locomotives”; in July 2009 it was transferred to the Museum of Railway Engineering at Riga Station . The second electric locomotive was also decommissioned and as of January 3, 2016 it was still located on the territory of the VNIIZhT experimental ring (see photo).