#3536· Class 45
British Rail Class 45
🇬🇧 United Kingdom ·built by British Rail· from 1960· class of 127 (1Co)(Co1) diesel electric locomotives
2 photos from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. BR Class 45 on passenger train at Loughborough, July 1975: MaltaGC· CC BY-SA 3.0
- 2. Class 45 and 1959 Stock: TriStateGuy· CC BY 4.0
what is it?
The British Rail Class 45 or Sulzer Type 4 are a type of diesel locomotives built by British Railways' Derby and Crewe Works between 1960 and 1962. Along with the similar Class 44 and 46 locomotives, they became known as Peaks.
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 66 years ago, in 1960.
- Top speed is 1.1× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
- 1.9 MW is about 22 family cars (~85 kW each) flat out.
- 20.4 m long: about 5 cars parked nose to tail.
- Served for 29 years (1960–1989).
diesel locomotive: A diesel engine on board drives the wheels, usually through a generator (diesel-electric).
spec sheet
- built
- 1960–1962
- in service from
- 1960
- retired
- 1989
- status
- preserved
- number built
- 127
- kind
- Diesel-electric
- traction
- diesel
- origin
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- builders
- British Rail, Derby Works, Crewe Works
- operators
- British Rail, London Midland Region of British Railways
- top speed
- 145 km/h
- power
- 1.9 MW
- wheel arrangement
- (1′Co)(Co1′)
- length
- 20.4 m
- nicknames
- Peak
- Dutch name
- Class 45
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q4970816, Wikipedia: British Rail Class 45 (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.