The Ukrainian transport engineering industry has a deep historical tradition that goes back to the activities of the Odesa railway workshops and the establishment of specialized locomotives in Kharkiv and Lugansk. The electric locomotives industry in Ukraine is represented by the products of the Dnipro plant, which for a long time produced electric locomotives of a purely industrial purpose. In the early 1990s, to upgrade the locomotive fleet of Ukrainian railways in the absence of foreign exchange funds for the purchase of traction rolling stock abroad, the management of Ukrzaliznytsia, together with the line ministries, decided to provide the organization of the main-line electric locomotives based on the Dnipro plant. During the implementation of the state program of mainline electric locomotives construction, the Dnepropetrovsk plant developed, and subsequently implemented, projects of a freight DC electric locomotive DE1, an AC cargo and passenger electric locomotive DS3, and also based on DS3 began technical research on a two-system electric locomotive with an asynchronous drive DS4. The Dnipro electric locomotive engineering plant, with its powerful scientific and production potential and clear development strategy, carried out the development and created the next generation's main electric locomotives to meet the needs of Ukrainian railways with modern electric transport. Unfortunately, due to the traditional lack of funding and lobbying on the part of Russian machine-building enterprises, the Dnieper electric locomotives have not become the main locomotives of Ukrainian railways. Unfortunately, due to the economic-financial crisis of 2008, all the prospective achievements of the said enterprise were virtually offset and the plant itself was in a difficult position. However, it is clear that the historical experience of becoming a Ukrainian scientific and production base of railway engineering needs to be properly considered. The proposed study does not deplete the raised problem in the field of the Dnipro electric locomotive plant`s activities, but only provides a general analysis and factual basis for further, more detailed review of the maintenance and development of national railway engineering in independent Ukraine, leaving considerable space for further scientific research.

In the article an attempt to investigate in a chronological order the historical circumstances of the formation and development of the mainline electric locomotives engineering at the Luhansk diesel locomotives engeneering plant (1957–2014) has been made. The circumstances of the activity of the electric locomotives workshop of the Luhansk plant (1957–1967), within which the production of crew parts and units of the legendary locomotives VL8 and VL10 for Novocherkask and Tbilisi factories have been analyzed. In the late 1980s, due to the absence of a solid convertible currency for the import of traction rolling stock from Czechoslovakia in the wake of the economic crisis of the USSR, the Luhansk plant received orders for the development and production of self-propelled electric locomotives. However, with the proclamation of the Independence of Ukraine, due to the lobbying of the new government, promising projects of Luhansk electric locomotives were rejected, and the Dnipro electric locomotives engineering plant was defined the basic enterprise for the creation of mainline electric locomotives for the Ukrainian railways. Due to the unstable economic situation in the country and the lack of targeted financing, the Dnipro plant was unable to start mass production of a number of types of locomotives, HC «Luhanskteplovoz» together with the Novocherkask plant began production of freight electric locomotives on the technological basis of Russian locomotives. Further development and prospects of serial electric locomotives engineering at the Luhansk plant were interrupted by the aggravation of the military-political situation in the region. However, it is clear that the historical experience of becoming a domestic scientific-production base of the mainline electrical production needs its proper understanding in the context of current tendencies of import of traction rolling stock with an attempt to localize its production in Ukraine.

In the article on the basis of the complex analysis of sources and scientific literature the attempt to investigate historical circumstances of development and construction of shunting electric locomotives at the Dnipropetrovsk electric locomotive plant has been made. It was found that during the 1960s and 1970s, the team of designers of the Dnipropetrovsk plant, having strong research and production potential, at the request of the Ministry of Railways of the USSR developed and built unique samples of shunting electric locomotives of the VL41 and VL26 series to meet the needs of Soviet main-line railways with modern high-tech electric vehicles. It is proved that in the absence of thorough experience and, accordingly, the possibility of a rapid technological breakthrough in the development of main-line locomotives, during the experimental operation of shunting electric locomotives VL41 and VL26, several design shortcomings were identified, which led to their further use exclusively on the house tracks of enterprises, and designers of Dnipropetrovsk plant later focused on the development and construction of traction units for industrial application commissioned by the Ministry of Ferrous Metallurgy of the USSR. At the same time, the construction of the main-line railway equipment to the order of the Ministry of Railways allowed the staff of the enterprise to gain valuable experience, which was later used in the implementation of the renewal program of rolling stock of Ukrzaliznytsia. Although today the Dnipropetrovsk plant is in decline, the analysis of historical circumstances of formation and design and technological heritage of electric locomotive construction in Ukraine is of fundamental importance both in the general perspective of the development of domestic transport engineering, and the railway industry in particular. Further study of the history of Dnipropetrovsk electric locomotive plant requires clarification of the historical circumstances of institutionalization of the Special Design and Technology Bureau of the enterprise from the creation of industrial electric locomotives and traction units to the development and re-equipment of main traction rolling stock and specialized repair equipment within the state enterprise “Ukrainian Research Design Institute of Electric Locomotive Engineering”.

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