NS Class 186


The NS Class 186 is a type of B-B electric locomotive built by Bombardier Transportation between 2006 and 2014. It is a member of the Bombardier TRAXX family of locomotives, the Bombardier TRAXX F140 MS2 variant.
The locomotives are used for pulling passenger stock, formerly for NS Hispeed and now for NS International. They are a Multi-Systems variant of the TRAXX, a quadruple voltage locomotive, able to operate on most European electrification schemes: 1.5/3.0 kV DC and 15/25 kV AC.
The Class is formed of two batches, the first introduced in 2008 are leased locomotives. The second batch were introduced in 2014 and are owned by NS.

History

HSA batch

The locomotives are built in Kassel, Germany. The first 12 locomotives were ordered from Alpha Trains by High Speed Alliance in 2005. These arrived in 2008 and 2009 to operate services on the HSL-Zuid between Amsterdam and Breda. These trains have a maximum speed of 160 km/h. These locomotives were intended to be a temporary measure until the V250 high-speed sets entered service. The V250 entered service in 2012, but was taken out of service in early 2013 and these have since been sold back to the manufacturer. For this reason the NS TRAXX locomotives are still in service and will remain so until at least 2020.
The leased locomotives were delivered in a red livery with white fronts, but since 2015 are being repainted yellow-blue.

NS batch

On 18 December 2013 NS announced that 19 locomotives had been ordered in addition to the 12 leased TRAXX locomotives in service. These were delivered between August 2014 and January 2015. This batch and are owned by NS and are in the company's yellow-blue livery.
On 17 June 2015 NS announced that a new batch of 26 locomotives had been ordered. The delivery started on 23 May 2016. The new locomotives will help the NS to drive each high-speed train in a so-called 'sandwich-formation'. Delivery was completed on 27 November 2016.
Sale to Akiem
Since NS plans to replace the push-pulls sets with high speed multiple units in a near future, the old coaching stock will be withdrawn while these comparatively new locomotives will be useless. In 2018, NS took a sale-and-leaseback agreement with Akiem for the entire Class 186 engines they own. NS will lease these engines to Akiem until the ICNG trainsets are delivered. The Class 186 would then find other purposes.

Services

The locomotives operate Intercity Direct services between Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Breda and The Hague, Rotterdam, Breda and Eindhoven. These use the High Speed Line and are operated by Nederlandse Spoorwegen.
Some of them are used on push-pull Benelux trains between Amsterdam, Antwerp and Brussels alongside with SNCB class 28. Since classes 28 and 186 are both Traxx MS 140 fitted with push-pull equipment, some Benelux trains run with a class 28 at one end and a class 186 at the other end.

Fleet

The NS Class 186 fleet comprises 45 yellow/blue locomotives leased from Akiem and 18 from Alpha Trains. Several more are leased without the yellow/blue scheme.
Number:Name:Built:Owner:
186 001-2014Akiem
186 002-2014Akiem
186 003-2014Akiem
186 004-2014Akiem
186 005-2014Akiem
186 006-2014Akiem
186 007-2014Akiem
186 008-2014Akiem
186 009-2014Akiem
186 010-2014Akiem
186 011-2014Akiem
186 012-2014Akiem
186 013-2014Akiem
186 014-2014Akiem
186 015-2014Akiem
186 016-2014Akiem
186 017-2014Akiem
186 018-2014Akiem
186 019-2015Akiem
186 020-2016Akiem
186 021-2016Akiem
186 022-2016Akiem
186 023-2016Akiem
186 024-2016Akiem
186 025-2016Akiem
186 026-2016Akiem
186 027-2016Akiem
186 028-2016Akiem
186 029-2016Akiem
186 030-2016Akiem
186 031-2016Akiem
186 032-2016Akiem
186 033-2016Akiem
186 034-2016Akiem
186 035-2016Akiem
186 036-2016Akiem
186 037-2016Akiem
186 038-2016Akiem
186 039-2016Akiem
186 040-2016Akiem
186 041-2016Akiem
186 042-2016Akiem
186 043-2016Akiem
186 044-2016Akiem
186 045-2016Akiem
186 111-1Karin2006Alpha Trains
186 112-9Erik Jan2007Alpha Trains
186 113-7Mario2007Alpha Trains
186 114-5-2007Alpha Trains
186 115-2-2007Alpha Trains
186 116-0Heleen2007Alpha Trains
186 117-8-2007Alpha Trains
186 118-6Martien2007Alpha Trains
186 119-4-2007Alpha Trains
186 120-2Milo2007Alpha Trains
186 121-0Gabriël2007Alpha Trains
186 122-8-2007Alpha Trains

Livery

The Class 186 wears the Huisstijl blue and yellow livery. Since their sale to Akiem, they carry a small Akiem logo under the left windshield.