NELP plans a 2ES9 prototype and painting modernisation

NELP plans a 2ES9 locomotive prototype in 2025 while upgrading its painting facilities, with completion scheduled for 2026 and a higher annual section capacity.

A prototype for the Eastern Polygon

Novocherkassk Electric Locomotive Plant plans a 2ES9 prototype in 2025, with 445 million rubles allocated to preparation. Rostov region authorities announced the programme after acting governor Yury Slyusar visited the Transmashholding plant. The planned 12-axle AC locomotive is intended for Russian Railways’ Eastern Polygon, at speeds up to 120 km/h.

NELP’s painting modernisation has a 2.8 billion ruble budget, including 2 billion from the Industrial Development Fund. The April 2025 programme envisages completion in 2026 and an increase from 550 to 700 locomotive sections painted annually. TMH CEO Kirill Lipa discussed equipment investment during the visit.

Transmashholding company identity

Work already under way

NELP received the two-billion-ruble concessional loan for locomotive body painting in 2024. By February 10, 2025, workers had installed a compressor station, removed roof structures and prepared the foundation for a transborder. The next stage comprised reconstruction of production areas for a new painting building and installation of technological equipment. The plant’s February timetable anticipated commissioning by the end of 2025; the later April regional update placed completion in 2026.

Alongside the painting investment, NELP had been implementing its “Sovereignisation” project since 2022, supported by the Industrial Development Fund. That programme concerns existing locomotive models manufactured with domestic components and carries a loan agreement exceeding one billion rubles. It is a separate financing arrangement from the painting loan, with a different production objective. The prototype allocation, painting modernisation and component programme therefore retain their individual amounts and purposes.

Production and earlier engineering work

During the first eight months of 2024, NELP manufactured 140 locomotives of different section configurations, comprising 332 electric-locomotive sections. Rostov deputy governor Igor Sorokin put output growth at 14% against the same period of the previous year. Locomotives and sections are different counting units; the 332 figure represents the sections within that reported production period.

Sorokin also described the EMKA2 shunting locomotive, a DC contact-and-battery design with an asynchronous drive and onboard energy storage. It was undergoing tests at Moscow stations in September 2024. That earlier model is separate from the proposed 2ES9 mainline prototype. NELP’s reconstruction at the time included replacement of the painting line, with more than 800 million rubles of plant funds and two billion rubles of borrowing identified for the project.

The holding’s investment programme

Transmashholding invested 28.5 billion rubles in development, new models and engineering capability in 2024, an increase of 35% year on year, according to the group. Updating NELP’s paint shop formed part of that programme. The holding also worked on domestic production of important components for locomotives, metro trains and locomotive-hauled passenger carriages.

The Moscow-headquartered group has international divisions in Egypt, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Its development programme brings together several distinct manufacturing activities. For the Novocherkassk project, the stated stages remain: