#2531
British Rail Class D3/12
🇬🇧 United Kingdom ·built by Southern Railway· from 1937· class of 3 350-hp 0-6-0 diesel electric shunting locomotives
what is it?
British Rail class D3/12 was a class of three experimental diesel-electric shunting locomotives designed by Richard Maunsell of the Southern Railway in 1937. They quickly proved their effectiveness, but the Second World War prevented more of them being built. Oliver Bulleid based the British Rail Class 12 on them in 1949.
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 89 years ago, in 1937.
- Weighs about as much as 9 African elephants (~6 t each).
- 9.1 m long: about 2 cars parked nose to tail.
- Served for 27 years (1937–1964).
diesel locomotive: A diesel engine on board drives the wheels, usually through a generator (diesel-electric).
spec sheet
- built
- 1937
- in service from
- 1937
- retired
- 1964
- status
- retired
- number built
- 3
- kind
- Diesel-electric
- traction
- diesel
- origin
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- builders
- Southern Railway, English Electric, Ashford Works
- operators
- Southern Railway, British Rail, Southern Region of British Railways
- top speed
- 48 km/h
- power
- 261 kW
- wheel arrangement
- 0-6-0
- length
- 9.1 m
- weight
- 55.9 t
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q4970899, Wikipedia: British Rail Class D3/12 (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.