Voith Maxima

The Voith Turbo company had long been known worldwide as the market leader in the field of hydrodynamic transmissions and had supplied transmissions for locomotives and DMUs for decades. The company only started building its own locomotives in 2006, in order to put a transmission developed in the nineties for an unrealized Vossloh diesel locomotive into service. This culminated in a purpose-built factory where the Maxima and Gravita were manufactured between 2006 and 2014.

The LS 640 reU2 gearbox made it possible to variably distribute the power to both bogies. With other, single-engine diesel-hydraulic locomotives, only the entire engine output could be reduced in case of wheel slip. In this case, the Maxima can continue to transmit power to the other bogie. 

The power required for the Maxima 40 CC, which was presented first, comes from a 16-cylinder engine from the Anglo Belgian Corporation with 4,700 hp. This one is, in contrast to the engines commonly used in diesel locomotives in Germany, a medium-speed engine with a correspondingly large displacement of 255 liters. It thus develops a starting tractive effort of up to 519 kN, which, however, is reduced to 408 kN in practice. Due to the latest developments in the field of cooling fans and sound insulation, the Maxima was not only the most powerful single-engine diesel locomotive in Europe at the time it was commissioned, but also one of the quietest.

The second model offered was the Maxima 30 CC, which was manufactured from 2008 and was immediately popular with various customers. It also has six axles and has 2,750 kW from twelve cylinders. Due to the lower weight, the fuel capacity has been increased from 9,000 to 10,000 liters. Although a total of 77 examples of the 30 CC and 40 CC had been ordered, production was stopped after just six and 13 examples respectively in 2014. The Maxima 30 LCC with 3,200 kW was offered as a further, unrealized six-axle variant. With four axles, there was the Maxima 20 BB with 2,000 kW and the 20 LBB with 2,400 kW. Although the four-axle variants were offered with an optional top speed of 140 or 160 km/h, they could not be sold due to the diesel-electric competition.