#3760
British Rail Class 57
🇬🇧 United Kingdom ·built by Brush Traction· from 1964· British Rail class 47 diesel locomotives rebuilt with EMD engines
2 photos from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. 57007 at Northampton: Paul Miller· Attribution
- 2. St Philip's Marsh - GWR 57603: Geof Sheppard· CC BY-SA 4.0
what is it?
The British Rail Class 57 is a type of diesel locomotive that was remanufactured from Class 47s by Brush Traction of Loughborough between 1998 and 2004. The Class 57 was produced in response to an order placed in November 1997 by the recently privatised freight operator Freightliner. The company sought to have its ageing Class 47s rebuilt, some of which had become increasingly unreliable and uncompetitive in comparison to new-build counterparts.
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 62 years ago, in 1964.
- Top speed is 1.2× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
- 2.1 MW is about 25 family cars (~85 kW each) flat out.
- Weighs about as much as 20 African elephants (~6 t each).
- 19.4 m long: about 4 cars parked nose to tail.
- Still in service after 28 years.
diesel locomotive: A diesel engine on board drives the wheels, usually through a generator (diesel-electric).
spec sheet
- built
- 1964–1967
- in service from
- 1998
- status
- in service
- number built
- 33
- kind
- Diesel-electric
- traction
- diesel
- origin
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- builders
- Brush Traction, British Rail
- operators
- Direct Rail Services, GB Railfreight, Great Western Railway, Locomotive Services Limited, West Coast Railway Company, Freightliner, Arriva Trains Wales, Virgin Trains, Network Rail, Colas Rail, Advenza Freight
- top speed
- 153 km/h
- power
- 2.1 MW
- gauge
- 1,435 mm standard gauge
- wheel arrangement
- Co′Co′
- length
- 19.4 m
- weight
- 121 t
- nicknames
- Thunderbirds, Bodysnatchers, Zombies
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q4970840, Wikipedia: British Rail Class 57 (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.