#3657
British Rail DHP1
🇬🇧 United Kingdom ·built by Clayton Equipment Company· from 1962· prototype/demonstrator diesel locomotive
what is it?
DHP1, meaning Diesel Hydraulic Prototype number 1, was a prototype Type 3 mainline diesel locomotive built between 1962 and 1963 by Clayton to demonstrate their wares to British Railways. It was designed for mixed traffic work, being equipped with steam heating facilities for working passenger trains. It was painted red, with the cab area above bonnet-level height painted cream.
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 64 years ago, in 1962.
- Top speed is 1.1× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
- 895 kW is about 11 family cars (~85 kW each) flat out.
- Weighs about as much as 9 African elephants (~6 t each).
- 14 m long: about 3 cars parked nose to tail.
diesel locomotive: A diesel engine on board drives the wheels, usually through a generator (diesel-electric).
spec sheet
- built
- 1962–1963
- status
- retired
- number built
- 1
- kind
- Diesel-hydraulic
- traction
- diesel
- origin
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- builders
- Clayton Equipment Company
- operators
- British Rail
- top speed
- 145 km/h
- power
- 895 kW
- gauge
- 1,435 mm standard gauge
- wheel arrangement
- B'B'
- length
- 14 m
- weight
- 56.9 t
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q4970924, Wikipedia: British Rail DHP1 (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.