DFH1 Class B'-B' Diesel-Hydraulics


The DFH1 was China's first production main line diesel-hydraulic design. It was developed from a 1958 built prototype variously referred to as the WeiXing or NY1. Why a hydraulic prototype was built at this stage is unclear. This was the period of Soviet technical assistance and the USSR didn't shown any serious interest in main line hydraulics until much later.

The design was clearly influenced by contemporary German practice with engines remarkably similar to Maybach models and Voith style transmissions. The locos had a cab at one end only and were equipped with a pair of 675 kW / 900 HP high speed engines and B-B trucks. Over 100 were built in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They were often used in pairs on passenger trains between Beijing and Shenyang until displaced by more powerful hydraulics in the late 1980s. All are now withdrawn.