#3459
ALCO RS-27
🇺🇸 United States ·built by American Locomotive Company· from 1959· American diesel locomotive
1 photo from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. 07 17 09 143xRP - Flickr - drewj1946: Drew Jacksich from San Jose, CA, The Republic of California· CC BY-SA 2.0
what is it?
The ALCO RS-27 (specification DL-640) was a diesel-electric locomotive built by ALCO between December 1959 and October 1962. Only 27 examples were manufactured. With ALCO's introduction of the Century Series line in 1963, the C-424 (specification DL-640A) replaced the RS-27 in the builder's catalog.
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 67 years ago, in 1959.
- 1.8 MW is about 21 family cars (~85 kW each) flat out.
- Weighs about as much as 19 African elephants (~6 t each).
- 17.4 m long: about 4 cars parked nose to tail.
diesel locomotive: A diesel engine on board drives the wheels, usually through a generator (diesel-electric).
spec sheet
- built
- 1959–1962
- status
- retired
- number built
- 27
- kind
- Diesel-electric
- traction
- diesel
- origin
- 🇺🇸 United States
- builders
- American Locomotive Company
- top speed
- —
- power
- 1.8 MW
- gauge
- 1,435 mm standard gauge
- wheel arrangement
- B-B
- length
- 17.4 m
- weight
- 117 t
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q4652286, Wikipedia: ALCO RS-27 (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.