#5052· HLE 13
Belgian Railways Class 13
🇧🇪 Belgium ·built by Alstom· from 1997· class of 60 Belgian electric locomotives
2 photos from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. Belgian Loc 1324 R01: Marc Ryckaert ( MJJR )· CC BY 3.0
- 2. SNCB Loc 1356 R01: Marc Ryckaert ( MJJR )· CC BY 3.0
what is it?
The Class 13 are a type of mixed use 200 km/h (124 mph) multivoltage electric locomotive of type Traxis designed by Alstom in the late 1990s for the Belgian and Luxembourgish railways (CFL Class 3000). The locomotives operate push-pull trains with coaches of type I11, as well as freight trains. Since 2012, NMBS/SNCB assigned more and more locomotives to their freight subsidiary due to the introduction of the Class 18 into passenger service.
who runs it
base stats
Bars compare against all trains: 600 km/h (maglev), 1,700 seats; power, weight and number built on a log scale up to 20 MW, 1,000 t and 20,000 built.
fun facts
- First built 29 years ago, in 1997.
- Top speed is 1.5× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
- At full speed it would cover Amsterdam–Utrecht (≈ 40 km) in 12 minutes.
- 5.2 MW is about 61 family cars (~85 kW each) flat out.
- Weighs about as much as 15 African elephants (~6 t each).
- 19.1 m long: about 4 cars parked nose to tail.
electric locomotive: Draws power from overhead wires or a third rail and pulls separate carriages.
spec sheet
- built
- 1997–2001
- number built
- 60
- kind
- Electric
- traction
- electric
- origin
- 🇧🇪 Belgium
- builders
- Alstom, ALSTOM Transportation Germany
- operators
- SNCB/NMBS, Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Luxembourgeois
- top speed
- 200 km/h
- power
- 5.2 MW
- gauge
- 1,435 mm standard gauge
- electric system
- 25 kV AC, 3 kV DC, 1.5 kV DC
- wheel arrangement
- Bo′Bo′
- length
- 19.1 m
- weight
- 90 t
- Dutch name
- HLE 13
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q928715, Wikipedia: Belgian Railways Class 13 (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.