The E el-2 (Cyrillic script: Ээл2) was a Soviet diesel-electric locomotive designed by Yury Lomonosov and built in Germany. The work was started by Hohenzollern Locomotive Works in Germany but, for political reasons, it was later transferred to Maschinenfabrik Esslingen.^{[clarification needed]} The locomotive was completed in 1924.^[1] In January 1925 it was transferred to the USSR and presented to the press and officials. The rest of that year it spent on several mainline routes of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Soviet Union) then worked mostly between Moscow and Kursk, Later it was moved to Ashkhabad (Ashgabat) in Turkmenistan. Despite some technical troubles in its early years, it underwent several modifications and lasted until 1954, running about a million kilometres (600,000 miles) in total.^[2]

The prime mover was an MAN submarine-type diesel engine, weighing 26 tonnes, and there were five traction motors, one for each driving axle. A semi-flexible coupling was installed between the diesel engine and the generator.^{[citation needed]}