#4581· HLE 11
Belgian Railways Class 11
🇧🇪 Belgium ·built by Ateliers de Constructions Electriques de Charleroi· from 1985· locomotive class
1 photo from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. NMBS 1190: Maurits90· Public domain
what is it?
The Belgian Railways Class 11 was part of the large 1980s family of 144 electric locomotives. The family was made up of Classes 11 (12), 12 (12), 21 (60) and 27 (60). Classes 11, 12 and 21 were nearly twice as powerful as Classes 22, 23 and 25 while Class 27 was more than twice as powerful as these 1950s locomotives.
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 41 years ago, in 1985.
- Top speed is 1.1× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
- 3.3 MW is about 39 family cars (~85 kW each) flat out.
- Weighs about as much as 14 African elephants (~6 t each).
- 18.7 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
- 1985–1986
- status
- retired
- number built
- 12
- kind
- Electric
- traction
- electric
- origin
- 🇧🇪 Belgium
- builders
- Ateliers de Constructions Electriques de Charleroi, La Brugeoise et Nivelles
- operators
- SNCB/NMBS
- top speed
- 140 km/h
- power
- 3.3 MW
- gauge
- 1,435 mm standard gauge
- electric system
- 1500 V DC, 3000 V DC
- wheel arrangement
- Bo-Bo
- length
- 18.7 m
- weight
- 85 t
- Dutch name
- HLE 11
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q588904, Wikipedia: Belgian Railways Class 11 (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.