#3321
South Australian Railways 800 class
🇦🇺 Australia ·built by English Electric· from 1956· class of 10 Australian diesel-electric locomotives
1 photo from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. SAR 801 NRM shuttle 17 Aug 2025: Redhen334· CC BY-SA 4.0
what is it?
The 800 class were a class of diesel locomotives built by English Electric, Rocklea for the South Australian Railways in 1956/57. They were nearly identical to the earlier Jamaican Railways 81 class.
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 70 years ago, in 1956.
- 559 kW is about 7 family cars (~85 kW each) flat out.
- 12.8 m long: about 3 cars parked nose to tail.
- Served for 34 years (1956–1990).
diesel locomotive: A diesel engine on board drives the wheels, usually through a generator (diesel-electric).
spec sheet
- built
- 1956–1957
- in service from
- 1956
- retired
- 1990
- status
- preserved
- number built
- 10
- kind
- Diesel-electric
- traction
- diesel
- origin
- 🇦🇺 Australia
- builders
- English Electric
- operators
- South Australian Railways
- top speed
- 97 km/h
- power
- 559 kW
- gauge
- 1,600 mm Irish broad gauge
- wheel arrangement
- Bo-Bo
- length
- 12.8 m
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q7566145, Wikipedia: South Australian Railways 800 class (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.