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North Korean Diesels - What Do We Know?

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North Korean Diesels - What Do We Know?
Posted by seppburgh2 on Tuesday, March 27, 2018 7:26 PM

 

 

Today’s news wire is alive with the North Korean “mystery train” in China.  What do know about these diesels? Are they Russian, Chines or N. Korean built?   I had assumed North Korean’s was still running steam due to availability of coal vs. oil, and low tech vs. expensive tech.  

Link to the Trains News artical: 

http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2018/03/27-north-korean-leader-may-have-made-first-international-trip-by-train

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Posted by NorthWest on Tuesday, March 27, 2018 9:43 PM

That's a standard China Railways DF11Z.

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Posted by M636C on Wednesday, March 28, 2018 5:40 PM

I don't know about the train itself but as I posted earlier in the news section, and as posted above, those are Chinese DF11z locomotives in the photo and video.

However, a reasonable amount is known about diesel locomotives in North Korea.

I believe the most common type would be the Russian M62,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M62_locomotive

This had the Kolomna 14D40 engine, a V-12 which was a two stroke with many similarities to EMD and Winton engines of the 1940s. It didn't have the overhead camshafts of the 567, but had some similarities with engines supplied by Winton to the US Navy.

Here is a more complete listing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_stock_of_the_Korean_State_Railway#Diesel_Locomotive_Classes

A number of secondhand early Chinese locomotives...

I wonder if they can still get spares for the French-built Alcos?

Peter

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Posted by seppburgh2 on Wednesday, March 28, 2018 9:32 PM

Thanks for the update and links, appreciate broading my knowlege of far away motive power!

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