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EU43-001 to -003 where built by Adtranz Italia (former ABB Technomasio) in Vado Ligure, Italy. The Adtranz-Pafawag factory in Wrocław than only had to finetune these machines. The assembly of EU43-004 to -008 was done Wrocław, with kits coming from Italy. In Poland, the EU43 were also known as the 112E project.
Unit EU43-001 was the first to be outshopped and left Italy on 10.06.1998. With this unit test runs where started in Poland in September 1998. Unit 002 was used for trials in Germany and Austria.
However, the eight EU43 series locomotives never became property of PKP. In the years that followed, a unclear combination of financial, contractual and technical difficulties resulted in Adtranz having to find an alternative customer for these eight machines. In 2001, the Italian/German operator Rail Traction Company (RTC) started first operations, and the EU43s came in the picture for its border-crossing services Italy-Austria.
As the base design of the EU43s has Italian roots, it was relativily easy to adjust them for this new customer. Cab interior orientation (from right to left) had to be changed, together with many technical parameters, but the base design design stayed the same. In the end, RTC took over all eight units. They are still operated under their original Polish designation.
source: Eisenbahn-Revue 9/1998 and 3/1999 |
Alstom
