#3812
British Rail Class 48
🇬🇧 United Kingdom ·built by Brush Traction· from 1965· subclass of British Rail Class 47 with different Sulzer engine
1 photo from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. D1705 near Quorn: Phil Sangwell· CC BY 2.0
what is it?
The British Rail Class 48 was a diesel locomotive class which consisted of five examples, built at Brush Falcon Works in Loughborough and delivered between September 1965 and July 1966. They were part of the British Rail Class 47 order, but differed from their classmates by being fitted with a Sulzer V12 12LVA24 power unit producing 2,650 bhp (1,976 kW), as opposed to the standard 12LDA28C twin-bank twelve-cylinder unit of the remaining fleet.
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 61 years ago, in 1965.
- Top speed is 1.2× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
- 2 MW is about 23 family cars (~85 kW each) flat out.
- 19.2 m long: about 4 cars parked nose to tail.
- Served for 6 years (1965–1971).
diesel locomotive: A diesel engine on board drives the wheels, usually through a generator (diesel-electric).
spec sheet
- built
- 1965–1966
- in service from
- 1965
- retired
- 1971
- status
- retired
- number built
- 5
- kind
- Diesel-electric
- traction
- diesel
- origin
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- builders
- Brush Traction
- operators
- British Rail
- top speed
- 153 km/h
- power
- 2 MW
- wheel arrangement
- Co'Co'
- length
- 19.2 m
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q4970819, Wikipedia: British Rail Class 48 (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.