"Stalin's locomotive": how was the fate of the strangest Soviet railway tractor

  • Jul 31, 2021

Even today, rail transport continues to play a colossal role in passenger and freight transport. In the first half of the 20th century, even more depended on trains, and therefore great attention was paid to their development and production. Establishing its own industry for the assembly of trains during the years of industrialization was one of the most important tasks for the Soviet Union.

The steam locomotive was designed in the early 1930s. / Photo: livejournal.com.
The steam locomotive was designed in the early 1930s. / Photo: livejournal.com.
The steam locomotive was designed in the early 1930s. / Photo: livejournal.com.

The locomotive "Joseph Stalin" was actually not one machine, but a whole series of railway tractors. The IC was developed and first released in 1932. Locomotives were assembled at the Kolomna and Voroshilovograd factories. Steam locomotives were produced until 1942. For ten years, 649 of them were collected. The main purpose of the ISs was to drive passenger trains on the railway. The steam locomotive is remarkable in that it became the first domestic machine with an axial formula of 1-4-2.

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It was decided to add a streamlined casing after aerodynamic tests. / Photo: drive2.com.
It was decided to add a streamlined casing after aerodynamic tests. / Photo: drive2.com.

Throughout the history of production, the steam locomotive Joseph Stalin was repeatedly improved, as a result of which several completely new series appeared, in some places quite different from their predecessors machines. One of these machines was the IS 20-16. Its main distinguishing feature was the aerodynamic casing, which was installed on top of the locomotive.

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Without a fashionable casing, the locomotive looks quite familiar. / Photo: livejournal.com.
Without a fashionable casing, the locomotive looks quite familiar. / Photo: livejournal.com.

The streamlined canopy was created after aerodynamic testing in the early 1930s. After checking the train on the pipe, the engineers found out that most of the useful energy is spent by the trains not on setting the cars in motion, but on overcoming air resistance. The fairing was supposed to smooth out the negative effect. If before that, Soviet trains accelerated to 125 km / h, then the IS 20-16 was able to increase the speed to 155 km / h. And after the modernization of 1938 and the transition to the 2-3-2 axle formula, the train with a fairing was able to accelerate to an unprecedented 180 km / h.

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A real steam locomotive era. / Photo: Twitter.
A real steam locomotive era. / Photo: Twitter.

Improvement of the steam locomotive continued until the end of the 1930s, as a result of which several dubious models that had even higher speed and better aerodynamics, but at the same time consumed almost 15% more fuel. During the war, most of the railway tractors of this type were sent to serve the needs of the front. Since 1942, the train was not produced for war reasons. And already in the 1950s, they did not return to its release due to the fact that a fundamentally new composition was developed at the Kolomna plant. The IS tractors were in operation until 1972.

The only one that has survived today is in Kiev. / Photo: YouTube.
The only one that has survived today is in Kiev. / Photo: YouTube.

Today, the only surviving IS is in a museum in Kiev, where it is installed as a monument in the Kiev-Passenger locomotive depot.

Continuing the topic, read about
why are they knocking on the wheels of trains after stopping.
Source:
https://novate.ru/blogs/221120/56845/

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