China Railways DF9

what is it?

The DF9 (Chinese: 东风9) was the first Chinese semi-high-speed diesel locomotive with a top speed of 160 km/h (99.4 mph), which was successfully developed by Qishuyan Locomotive and Rolling Stock Works in 1990. As part of China's Eighth Five-Year Plan scientific and technological project, the DF9 diesel locomotive adopts wheel-to-hollow shaft traction motor full suspension drive system, high-flexibility second-series round springs, lightweight body and other technologies. Although the only two DF9s produced were scrapped in 2011, it laid the foundation for the development of DF11 diesel locomotives.

who runs it

China State Railway Group

base stats

• speed 160 km/htop speed
• power 3 MWpower output
• weight 138 tin working order
• built 2made in total

Bars compare against all trains: 600 km/h (maglev), 1,700 seats; power, weight and number built on a log scale up to 20 MW, 1,000 t and 20,000 built.

fun facts

• 🎂First built 36 years ago, in 1990.
• 🏎️Top speed is 1.2× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• ⏱️At full speed it would cover Amsterdam–Utrecht (≈ 40 km) in 15 minutes.
• 🚗3 MW is about 36 family cars (~85 kW each) flat out.
• 🐘Weighs about as much as 23 African elephants (~6 t each).
• 📏20.2 m long: about 4 cars parked nose to tail.

diesel locomotive: A diesel engine on board drives the wheels, usually through a generator (diesel-electric).

spec sheet

built

1990–1991

retired

2011

status

retired

number built

2

kind

Diesel-electric

traction

diesel

origin

🇨🇳 China

builders

CRRC Qishuyan Co., Ltd.

operators

China State Railway Group

top speed

160 km/h

power

3 MW

gauge

1,435 mm standard gauge

wheel arrangement

Co′Co′

length

20.2 m

weight

138 t

From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.