1 photo from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. SLR Class M1: Lanil T Marasinghe· CC BY-SA 3.0
what is it?
Sri Lanka Railways Class M1 is a class of 25 diesel-electric locomotives used by Sri Lanka Railways, imported from 1953 and were removed from service from 1983. The locomotives were manufactured by Brush Bagnall Traction and weighed 88 long tons (89 t) with a 1,000 hp (746 kW) V12 Mirlees Bickerton day JS12VT four-stroke engine driving a 652kW Brush Electrical Engineering Co Ltd generator. Locomotive number 560 was restored and is currently on display at the National Railway Museum, Kadugannawa.
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 74 years ago, in 1952.
- 746 kW is about 9 family cars (~85 kW each) flat out.
- Served for 30 years (1953–1983).
diesel locomotive: A diesel engine on board drives the wheels, usually through a generator (diesel-electric).
spec sheet
- built
- 1952
- in service from
- 1953
- retired
- 1983
- status
- retired
- number built
- 25
- kind
- Diesel-electric
- traction
- diesel
- origin
- 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka
- builders
- Brush Traction
- operators
- Sri Lanka Railways
- top speed
- —
- power
- 746 kW
- gauge
- 1,676 mm Indian broad gauge
- wheel arrangement
- (A1A)(A1A)
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q7585948, Wikipedia: Sri Lanka Railways M1 (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.