China Railways HXN5B

The HXN5B is a heavy diesel-electric locomotive of China Railway, built for shunting and freight work in yards and on lines where a strong switcher is needed. China Railway had it developed by CSR Qishuyan, now CRRC Qishuyan, at Changzhou, and it has been built since 2012. The design follows the same principles as American road switchers. It is a six axle C-C machine for standard gauge, powered by a twelve cylinder diesel engine rated at 3,530 kW, or about 4,800 horsepower, driving three-phase AC traction motors. The loco-info reference counts more than 210 built, while other listings give smaller totals, so the production figure is left unstated here. For the Belt and Road project, further units were needed for the Chinese-Russian border area, with bogies that could be adapted to the Russian and standard gauge. For that purpose the HXN5B was chosen after the DF7C and adapted to use the SA3 central buffer coupling.