what is it?
The NMBS-SNCB HLD 50 locomotive was a high-powered testbed locomotive, converted from HLD 201.001 in 1969.
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 57 years ago, in 1969.
- Top speed is 1.1× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
- 3 MW is about 35 family cars (~85 kW each) flat out.
- Weighs about as much as 21 African elephants (~6 t each).
- 20.2 m long: about 4 cars parked nose to tail.
diesel locomotive: A diesel engine on board drives the wheels, usually through a generator (diesel-electric).
spec sheet
- built
- 1969
- number built
- 1
- kind
- Diesel
- traction
- diesel
- origin
- 🇧🇪 Belgium
- builders
- Cockerill-Sambre, John Cockerill & Cie.
- operators
- SNCB/NMBS
- top speed
- 140 km/h
- power
- 3 MW
- gauge
- 1,435 mm standard gauge
- wheel arrangement
- Co′Co′
- length
- 20.2 m
- weight
- 124 t
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q1254309, Wikipedia: Belgian Railways Class 50 (diesel locomotive) (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.