#3864
CIÉ 181 Class
🇺🇸 United States ·built by General Motors Diesel· from 1966· class of American-built 1100-hp double-ended diesel-electric road-switcher locomotives
2 photos from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. CIE 185 loco 2008: Sihirtya· CC BY-SA 3.0
- 2. CIE 181 CLASS INCHICORE: Suckindiesel at English Wikipedia· CC BY-SA 3.0
what is it?
The Córas Iompair Éireann 181 Class locomotives were built in 1966 by General Motors Electro-Motive Division (EMD) and numbered B181 to B192.
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 60 years ago, in 1966.
- Top speed is 1.1× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
- 820 kW is about 10 family cars (~85 kW each) flat out.
- Weighs about as much as 11 African elephants (~6 t each).
- 13.4 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
- 1966
- retired
- 2009
- status
- preserved
- number built
- 12
- kind
- Diesel–electric
- traction
- diesel
- origin
- 🇺🇸 United States
- builders
- General Motors, Electro-Motive Diesel
- operators
- Córas Iompair Éireann, Iarnród Éireann—Irish Rail
- top speed
- 143 km/h
- power
- 820 kW
- gauge
- 1,600 mm Irish broad gauge
- wheel arrangement
- Bo′Bo′
- length
- 13.4 m
- weight
- 67 t
- nicknames
- "Baby GM", "Small GM", "Bo-Bos"
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q4035624, Wikipedia: CIÉ 181 Class (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.