#4037
Sri Lanka Railways W1
🇱🇰 Sri Lanka ·built by Henschel & Sohn· from 1969· class of 45 diesel-hydraulic locomotives
1 photo from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. Colombo sri lanka Railway -Train: Joost J. Bakker from IJmuiden· CC BY 2.0
what is it?
Sri Lanka Railways W1 is a class of Sri Lankan diesel-hydraulic locomotive that was built by Rheinstahl Henschel in 1969 for use by Sri Lanka Railways (SLR). This is the first diesel-hydraulic locomotive to run on Sri Lankan rails.
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.
- 858 kW is about 10 family cars (~85 kW each) flat out.
- Weighs about as much as 10 African elephants (~6 t each).
- 12.8 m long: about 3 cars parked nose to tail.
- Served for 26 years (1969–1995).
diesel locomotive: A diesel engine on board drives the wheels, usually through a generator (diesel-electric).
spec sheet
- built
- 1969
- in service from
- 1969
- retired
- 1995
- status
- in service
- number built
- 45
- kind
- Diesel-hydraulic
- traction
- diesel
- origin
- 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka
- builders
- Henschel & Sohn
- operators
- Sri Lanka Railways
- top speed
- 80 km/h
- power
- 858 kW
- gauge
- 1,676 mm Indian broad gauge
- wheel arrangement
- B′B′
- length
- 12.8 m
- weight
- 60.5 t
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q17076237, Wikipedia: Sri Lanka Railways W1 (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.