By 1969, in order to celebrate the 20th National Day of People's Republic of China (PRC), Dalian Locomotive & Rolling Stock Works partially modified the original design scheme, installed the first diesel engine and motor set prototype trial-produced between 1966 and 1967 on locomotives, and developed the first Dongfeng 4 diesel locomotive with the vehicle number of 200/kloc-0. After leaving the factory, the locomotive was tested in Dalian-Dashiqiao section of Shenyang-Dalian Railway. However, due to the hasty launch of the locomotive as a "National Day gift", its parts failed to meet the design requirements, and the performance and quality of the whole locomotive failed to pass the standard. Since then, Dalian Factory has made a series of improvements to diesel engines in view of the exposed problems, and Tian Xin Electric Locomotive Factory, Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Research Institute, Yongji Electric Machine Factory and Dalian Thermal Locomotive Research Institute have also joined forces. 1972 Dongfeng 4 locomotive 200 1 delivered to Beijing internal combustion locomotive depot of Beijing Railway Bureau, and began to be used for examination. 1973 No.2002 locomotive was trial-produced by Dalian factory and also assigned to Beijing diesel locomotive depot for trial use. After completing the traction test of beijing-baotou railway and Beijing-Guangzhou railways, arrange to tow passenger trains of Jingshan Railway. At the same time, the Ministry of Railways decided to import a batch of ND4 diesel locomotives representing the highest level of the second generation electric diesel locomotives in the world at that time from Alstom Company in France as a transition.

1in 1974, 000 1 Dongfeng 4 freight locomotive was trial-produced in Dalian factory and delivered to Fengtai Locomotive Depot of Beijing Railway Bureau for use. In August of the same year, 000 1 locomotive went to Hunan-Guizhou railway for high temperature cooling test; In September of the same year, 000 1 locomotive was converted into a passenger-to-transmission ratio bogie, and the dynamic performance test was carried out between Fengtai and Shijiazhuang on the Beijing-Guangzhou line, with the highest test speed of130 km/h. After the test, at the end of the same year, Dalian factory officially started mass production of Dongfeng 4 diesel locomotives and stopped production of Dongfeng 3 locomotives. 1975 65438+ 10/0 000 1 locomotive refitted freight transmission ratio bogie, and the traction thermal performance test was conducted by the Research Institute of the Ministry of Railways. 1In February, 1975, both China News and Hong Kong Ta Kung Pao reported the development of Dongfeng 4 locomotive with the title of "The Birth of 4000 HP Diesel Locomotive".

However, Dongfeng 4 locomotive is mass-produced under the condition of unstable parts and manufacturing technology. With the increase of running mileage, many problems are exposed in mechanical and electrical parts, especially the failure rate of diesel engines is very high, and a large number of locomotives need to be repaired. At that time, Fengtai Locomotive Depot also sang a jingle: "Dongfeng 4, Dongfeng 4, Dongdan can't run to Xisi. The Beijing-Guangzhou line is paralyzed, and Dongfeng 4 is finished. " Dalian factory has made many improvements in the structure and technology of diesel engines. In the process of improvement, in view of the fracture accident of connecting rod cover, the diesel engine adopts thickened symmetrical connecting rod cover; In order to improve the stability of the supercharging system, an exhaust surge tank is added at the top of the diesel engine. In order to distinguish it from the original diesel engine, the above two improved diesel engines are modeled as 16V240ZJA, and the Dongfeng 4 locomotive equipped with this diesel engine is informally called "Dongfeng 4A" to show the difference. The first Dongfeng 4(A) 0 109 locomotive with diesel engine was delivered in June 1976, and mass production began in the second half of the same year. During the mass production of Dongfeng 4(A) locomotive, Dalian Factory continued to study the problems of insufficient strength and stiffness of diesel engine and poor dynamic performance of shafting. 1977 trial-produced the reinforced engine block with new structure, and the new diesel engine introduced many parts, new structures and new technologies. After testing, it is in good condition. As an upgraded product of a diesel engine, it was finalized as 16V240ZJB. During the period from 1980 to 198 1, the cracked diesel engine block of Dongfeng 4(A) locomotive was replaced by a type B diesel engine block, and a total of 1 15 sets were replaced. 198265438+February, the first Dongfeng -4 0527 locomotive equipped with 16V240ZJB diesel engine was delivered from the factory. As an upgraded product of DF-4(A) locomotive, it was finally finalized as DF-4B, which was put into mass production in July of 1984, while DF-4(A) was discontinued.

At the beginning of 1980, due to the lack of railway transportation capacity and production capacity of Dongfeng 4(A) locomotive in China at that time, Ziyang Diesel Locomotive Factory changed to Dongfeng 4(A) locomotive in 1983 according to the instructions of the Ministry of Railways and the drawings provided by Dalian Locomotive and Rolling Stock Factory. The first trial-produced Dongfeng 4 locomotive (car number 300 1) in Ziyang Factory was delivered to Guangzhou Locomotive Depot of Guangzhou Railway Bureau at the end of 1983. Since Ziyang Factory didn't complete the technical transformation of changing to Dongfeng 4B locomotive until 1986, Ziyang Factory only stopped production of Dongfeng 4(A) locomotive at 1986.

By the end of 1986, 843 Dongfeng 4(A) locomotives were produced in Dalian and Ziyang factories. Among them, Dalian factory has produced 3 1 bus (car number 200 1 ~ 203 1) and 770 trucks (car number 000 1 ~ 0770). Ziyang factory has produced 42 freight cars (car number 300 1 ~ 3042).

From 2006 to 2008, the Ministry of Railways of China provided three batches of Dongfeng -4 and Dongfeng -4B locomotives to the DPRK. In the latest year of 2008, the 12 Dongfeng 4 locomotive belonging to Beijing Railway Bureau was handed over to North Korea free of charge after renovation. In the North Korean railway system, these locomotives are numbered 2xx(Naey? N 2xx internal combustion 2××).