Draft:Locomotora Werkspoor DEB600

The Werkspoor DEB-600 was a diesel-electric locomotive manufactured in Holland between 1954 and 1955. They were among the few diesel locomotives in Argentina with Bo-Bo wheels and they completed an acceptable campaign despite their low power.

Background
In 1952, the National Ministry of Transport (MTN) decided to purchase the Werkspoor DEB600, in the amount of 30 1000mm gauge machines. for the Belgrano Railway and 50 of gauge 1676mm. for the San Martín Railway.

Building
These eighty locomotives were assembled and tested in Utrecht, and the engines built in Amsterdam. The order also included eight spare diesel engines. They were built at a rate of four to five every two weeks, and towards the end of 1954 they began to be tested on the Dutch Railways, four medium gauge bogies being built for that purpose exactly the same as the wide ones. The only difference between the wide and narrow gauge models was limited exclusively to the coupling hooks, brake compressor, bogie width and details inherent to the gauge. These differences meant that the metric ones weighed 60 and the wide ones weighed 62 t. This low axle weight made them suitable for any branch, but dangerous when skidding. To do this, Werkspoor wired the traction motors in parallel, weakening the field and avoiding maximum amperage in them. They could be coupled in multiples but only in pairs and cabin with cabin, since the electrical couplings were only found below them, being designed to circulate in the direction of the "long nose". They had spacious and comfortable cockpits, made specifically to obtain good air circulation during the summer periods and avoid the use of fans. The Werkspoor engine was the RUB1612, with 12 V-shaped cylinders with articulated connecting rods (see DEE model) and a cylinder diameter of 160 mm. with strokes of 200 and 206 mm. They rotated at 1400 rpm and had two Brown Boveri turbos. The generator was a conventional Jeumont with two supports, with a maximum speed of 369 kW. At the beginning of the '60s, Astarsa ​​was contracted for the general repair of these machines, making 10435 the first diesel repair of this company, since until then it had only repaired steam locomotives. The diesel engines were repaired by Stork from Argentina, the new representative of Werkspoor, and the electrical part was repaired by CEE (Special Electromechanical Constructions) on the first locomotive, while the remaining ones were repaired by Siam Di Tella Ltda. Electromechanical Division. At the suggestion of General San Martín Railway, the circuit and electrical panel were considerably simplified. Once the repair was completed, they were tested on the Delta branch and then to Junín, before being received by the San Martín Railway, while the narrow gauge ones were tested in the Boulogne area (there was one that escaped to Arroyo De La Cruz ). In total, fifteen of each gauge were repaired, while additional others arrived at Astarsa ​​in such a dilapidated state that the shipyard gave up rehabilitating them. Part of the 15 in Belgrano Railway had their brake system changed with equipment from Whitcomb already radiated and deposited in La Plata. In his last years, Alta Córdoba repaired them.

Schemes
The first locomotives arrived in the country with the following color scheme: light gray with a blue roof and band along it.

When they had barely been in service for four years, the Werkspoor DEB of the Belgrano Railway, which worked with the suburban trains of lines G, M, and P (Buenos Aires-Gonzalez Catán, Puente Alsina-Libertad, and La Plata-Avellaneda), already presented four different decorations. To explain such curiosity, let's quickly review the most recent history of these lines. When it was established on January 1, 1949, the General Belgrano National Railway brought together all meter gauge railways, with the sole exception of the Buenos Aires Provincial Railway (PBA), which remained property of the province until the end of 1951 when, it went to the national level. On October 17, 1954, Belgrano Railway completed the total dieselization of suburban services in the Buenos Aires Zone (lines G and M) through the use of Whitcomb locomotives.

The reorganization
On January 1, 1954, an important reorganization of these lines took place: the Buenos Aires Provincial Railway, already owned by the Nation, was renamed the Buenos Aires Provincial National Railway (BA) and, from the same date, absorbed the lines G and M, until then of the General Belgrano Railway. From this change, the Whitcombs that operated on these lines continued on the Provincial, on loan. In 1955 it was decided to allocate the thirty metric gauge locomotives contracted with the Werkspoor to the Provincial. With its delivery, the Provincial had to return to the GB the Whitcombs that he had lent him; but, in addition, it had to reinforce several sections of its fragile track. When the metric Werkspoor began to arrive at the end of 1955, the improvement of the track was still far from complete. Conclusion: the Provincial only received 15 of them, the rest went to General Belgrano, in compensation for the Whitcombs lent. The new machines came painted with an ash white enamel base. General Belgrano, just as he had done with the Whitcombs, put them into service as they arrived. Later, after the settlement period, and very slowly, in San Cristóbal some began to decorate themselves in silver and blue, with the same scheme as the Whitcombs. For his part, the Provincial painted them when putting them into service, copying the green decoration with ivory stripes of the unit that made the test trips in Holland. On October 7, 1957, the Provincial disappeared. From that day on, all its lines became part of the Belgrano Railway. Since then, the Werkspoor of the Retiro Zone were gradually transferred to the Buenos Aires Zone and remained under the exclusive attention of La Plata. This workshop was seriously overloaded with work since it had to attend to the material of line P (ex PBA) and a good part of line G (ex CGBA), whose workshop at the Buenos Aires station had been closed during the Belgrano administration in the early years of the decade. So the Werkspoor that came from the Retiro area, most of them undecorated, were not touched by the workshop for a long time. Only at the beginning of the sixties did some of the white locomotives begin to be painted; The scheme used was the same as the one the Provincial had applied, but green was replaced with red. This is how during the years 1960-1965 Werkspoor locomotives with four different decorations could be seen on suburban services to González Catán, Libertad and La Plata with four different decorations: white, green, silver and red. A feast for the railfans of that time.

Operation
On the San Martín Railway, where all fifty wide gauge trains were assigned, they performed various services, normally coupled to the main track and as simple units for maneuvers. Their workplaces were local areas of Buenos Aires and sometimes long distance to Villa Mercedes, as well as cargo locations. In recent years they have been relegated to internal service maneuvers in Mendoza and Alianza workshops.

At Belgrano Railway, the 30 built worked on all types of services that radiated from Buenos Aires, both to the north and south. Tapiales, Boulogne and La Plata were its bases and workshop until the end of 1980.

They were used mostly as pilots on the classification yards and warehouses. The possibility of coupling them in multiples was a feature taken advantage of by the San Martín Railway, with local and passenger services, where they were also seen as simple units such as shunting locomotives. From time to time you could see them running in four-wheel drive around the premises or with some short General, or with some cargo formation. At the end of their days we found them working as pilots in Junín, Mendoza and Alianza. When they went out of service in the early '80s, five maintained by San Cristóbal were reserved and renumbered S.I.1 to S.I.5 to work as pilots in the FCGB workshops of San Cristóbal, Laguna Paiva and Alta Córdoba, a function they fulfilled until 1989. approximately. Today some bodies survive in the Belgrano and others in San Martín Railway. The ONABE delivered a wide gauge DEB into custody to the Ferroclub Argentino, Alianza headquarters, where it is undergoing recovery tasks.

In 1993, when the concessionaire BAP San Martín S.A took over the Ex-FCGSM Cargo Service, it rejected them due to their low power, ending the last 3 radiated machines of the service in the Alianza yard (Santos Lugares). Such machines are 10414, 10416 and 10448.

Preservation
There is a unit (10448) that once circulated on the San Martin Line, which to this day and for a long time has been guarded by the people of the Raúl Scalabrini Ortiz Museum in Haedo.