As part of their modernisation process in the 1980s and 1990s, Comboios de Portugal (Portuguese Railways, CP) procured a fleet of 220km/h electric locomotives from Siemens/Krauss-Maffei in Germany. These were based on the RENFE class 252 electrics, which in turn were derived from the German class 120s and were christened by CP as class 5600.
30 locos were built by a German-Portuguese consortium, with electrical and mechanical equipment from Germany and the bodyshells from Sorefame in Portugal, and were numbered 5601 to 5630. They were delivered to CP between 1993 and 1995.
As built, all were in a pool that worked passenger trains, but soon sectorisation beckoned. As of now, 5601 to 5620 are passenger locos whereas 5621 to 5630 are dedicated to freight with Medway (the former CP Carga) – although sadly, however, two of them have been written off: 5624 at Abela on the Sines branch on 14th May 2003, and then 5613 in a collision at Alfarelos (see here) on 21st January 2013. The other 28 remain in traffic.
Booked Passenger Work
With the exception of the 1400 operations around Porto, the 5600s are now the only Portuguese locos with booked passenger work.
A set of unofficial diagrams can be found in the files section of the excellent “gen group” European Rail Gen, indicating that approximately 15 locos are required daily. They work expresses from Lisboa south to Faro and north to Porto.
European Traction 