LOCOMOTIVES, JŽ 361 series electric locomotives

JŽ 361 series electric locomotives The oldest electrified railway line in Croatia opened to traffic in 1936, exactly 90 years ago, between Šapjane and Rijeka. Until the end of 2012, it operated on a 3 kV DC electrification system, which was then replaced by a 25 kV, 50 Hz AC system. The original electrification was introduced by the Italian State Railways, Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane (FS), which administered the area at the time. Since the Italian railways electrified the first railway line in Croatia, the first electric locomotives also arrived from Italy. These were FS Class E 626 locomotives, which after World War II, under the administration of Yugoslav Railways, were redesignated as the JŽ 361 series. These electric locomotives were manufactured at several factories in Italy, with most of those intended for use in Yugoslavia and Croatia being produced by CEMSA (Costruzioni Elettro Meccaniche di Saronno) in Saronno, in the Italian region of Lombardy, between 1927 and 1940. After production of this series was discontinued, subsequent series of electric locomotives built after World War II were manufactured at the Ansaldo factory in Genoa. The main characteristic of the JŽ 361 series, the oldest electric locomotive used on Croatian railway lines, was its Boʾ Boʾ Boʾ wheel arrangement. With a weight of 93 metric tons and a length of 14.95 m, it was equipped with six traction motors with a total output of 1,890 kW (2,570 hp), allowing it to reach a maximum speed of 95 km/h. A total of 448 locomotives of this type were built, 17 of which came under the administration of Yugoslav Railways. On 4 May 1962, 16 of them were taken over by Železniško gospodarstvo (ŽG) Ljubljana, while only one was assigned to Željezničko transportno poduzeće (ŽTP) Zagreb. In Croatia, the locomotive was withdrawn from service in 1967 following the arrival of the new JŽ 362 series locomotives, later designated HŽ 1061. Locomotives of the same series remained in service in Slovenia until 1976, while modernized examples continued to operate in Italy into the 1980s. This locomotive is remembered as the first electric locomotive in Croatia. dr. sc. Josip Kajinić, Research Associate, Curator