#2039
Pennsylvania Railroad class L5
🇺🇸 United States ·built by Westinghouse Electric Corporation· from 1924· class of 25 American 1′B+B1′ electric locomotives
what is it?
The Pennsylvania Railroad's class L5 were the railroad's second generation of production electric locomotives after the DD1, and the last to use a jackshaft and side rods to drive the wheels. The L5 was a single-unit locomotive instead of the twin-unit DD1. The wheel arrangement in Whyte notation was 2-4-4-2, or 1-B-B-1 in the AAR scheme.
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 102 years ago, in 1924.
- 2.5 MW is about 29 family cars (~85 kW each) flat out.
- Weighs about as much as 31 African elephants (~6 t each).
- 20.7 m long: about 5 cars parked nose to tail.
electric locomotive: Draws power from overhead wires or a third rail and pulls separate carriages.
spec sheet
- built
- 1924–1928
- number built
- 25
- kind
- Electric
- traction
- electric
- origin
- 🇺🇸 United States
- builders
- Westinghouse Electric Corporation, General Electric, Brown, Boveri & Cie, Altoona Works
- operators
- Pennsylvania Railroad
- top speed
- 113 km/h
- power
- 2.5 MW
- gauge
- 1,435 mm standard gauge
- electric system
- 11 kV 25 hz AC overhead catenary ( L5paw )
- wheel arrangement
- 2-4-4-2
- length
- 20.7 m
- weight
- 185 t
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q7120499, Wikipedia: Pennsylvania Railroad class L5 (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.