#4271
British Rail Class 56
🇬🇧 United Kingdom ·built by Electroputere· from 1976· class of 135 diesel-electric freight locomotives
2 photos from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. 56006 at Doncaster Works: No machine-readable author provided. Our Phellap~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims).· CC BY-SA 3.0
- 2. Floyd 659 001 új színterv: Áthaladójelző at Hungarian Wikipedia· Public domain
what is it?
The British Rail Class 56 is a type of diesel locomotive designed for heavy freight work. It is a Type 5 locomotive, with a Ruston-Paxman power unit developing 3,250 bhp (2,420 kW), and has a Co-Co wheel arrangement. Enthusiasts nicknamed them "Gridirons" (or "Grids" for short), due to the grid-like horn cover on the locomotive's cab ends fitted to nos.
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 50 years ago, in 1976.
- 2.4 MW is about 29 family cars (~85 kW each) flat out.
- 19.2 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
- 1976–1984
- in service from
- 1976
- number built
- 135
- kind
- Diesel-electric
- traction
- diesel
- origin
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- builders
- Electroputere, British Rail Engineering Limited, Doncaster Works, Crewe Works
- operators
- British Rail
- top speed
- 129 km/h
- power
- 2.4 MW
- gauge
- 1,435 mm standard gauge
- wheel arrangement
- Co′Co′
- length
- 19.2 m
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q849830, Wikipedia: British Rail Class 56 (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.