1 photo from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. 5500HP WDG5 Locomotive christened as Bheem - Flickr - Dr. Santulan Mahanta: Santulan Mahanta from Golaghat (GLGT), Guwahati (GHY), Lucknow (LKO), New Delhi (NDLS), INDIA· CC BY 2.0
what is it?
The Indian locomotive class WDG-5 (EMD GT50AC) is a class of heavy haul Diesel–electric locomotive built by Banaras Locomotive Works, Varanasi in collaboration with Electro-Motive Diesel. At a rated power output of 5,500 horsepower (4,100 kW), it is the second most powerful diesel locomotive class on Indian Railways, just out-powered by the 6,000 horsepower (4,500 kW) WDG-6G. Derived from the EMD SD80MAC, it was meant as a direct upgrade to the WDG-4 aka GT46MAC (an SD70MAC derivative). The locomotive series is named Bheem, after the strong Pandav brother from epic Mahabharata.
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 14 years ago, in 2012.
- Weighs about as much as 22 African elephants (~6 t each).
diesel locomotive: A diesel engine on board drives the wheels, usually through a generator (diesel-electric).
spec sheet
- built
- 2012–2018
- number built
- 7
- kind
- Diesel–electric
- traction
- diesel
- origin
- 🇮🇳 India
- builders
- BLW
- designer
- RDSO, EMD
- operators
- Indian Railways
- top speed
- 100 km/h
- power
- —
- gauge
- 1,676 mm Indian broad gauge
- weight
- 134 t
- nicknames
- BHEEM
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q96382098, Wikipedia: Indian locomotive class WDG-5 (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.