The Indian locomotive class WAP-5 is a class of

electric locomotives An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a Battery (electricity), battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime mover (locomotive), ...

used by

Indian Railways Indian Railways is a state-owned enterprise that is organised as a departmental undertaking of the Ministry of Railways (India), Ministry of Railways of the Government of India and operates India's national railway system. , it manages the fou ...

. The first ten locomotives were imported from

Adtranz Adtranz was a multi-national rail transportation equipment manufacturer with facilities concentrated in Europe and the US. The company, legally known as ABB Daimler-Benz Transportation, was created in 1996 as a joint venture between ABB and Daim ...

in Switzerland in 1995 and later manufactured by

Chittaranjan Locomotive Works Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW) is an electric locomotive manufacturer based in India. The works are located at Chittaranjan in the Asansol Sadar subdivision of West Bengal, with an ancillary unit in Dankuni. The main unit is 32 km fr ...

in India. On 3 July 2014, a WAP-5 set an Indian speed record by hauling a train between Delhi and Agra at a speed of . The locomotive has

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, flexible gear coupling, wheel-mounted

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, and a potential for speed enhancement to . Braking systems include regenerative brakes, disc brakes, automatic train air brakes and a charged spring

parking brake In road vehicles, the parking brake, also known as a handbrake or emergency brake (e-brake), is a mechanism used to keep the vehicle securely motionless when parked. Parking brakes often consist of a pulling mechanism attached to a Wire rope, ...

Locomotive sheds

Last updated:- June 2025

Variants

Aerodynamic Ghaziabad WAP-5 30164 with Rupashi Bangla Express

In October 2015, a WAP-5A locomotive (no. 30086) was rolled-out with a gear ratio of 59:35:19 capable of speeds up to for trial runs. In March 2018, a WAP-5 locomotive (no. 30136) with an enhanced power output of was released which was later adopted as a standard based on successful trials. Some locomotives of this class are equipped with "Head On Generation" (HOG) in which electric power from the locomotive's

pantograph A pantograph (, from their original use for copying writing) is a Linkage (mechanical), mechanical linkage connected in a manner based on parallelograms so that the movement of one pen, in tracing an image, produces identical movements in a se ...

is transferred to the coaches instead of End Of Generation where a power car equipped with diesel generator is provided at either end of the train rake to supply power. The first WAP-5 locomotive (no. 30140) with HOG was rolled by CLW in June 2018. One of the Tejas WAP-5s with Kochuveli-Indore Weekly Express

One of the Tejas WAP-5s with Kochuveli-Indore Weekly Express

In October 2020, two WAP-5 locomotives (no. 35012 and 35013) were given an asymmetric body design with an aerodynamic profile for one cab and a blunt profile for another cab at the opposite end, which is intended to be semi-permanently coupled with a train in a

push-pull configuration An aircraft constructed with a push-pull configuration has a combination of forward-mounted Tractor configuration, tractor (pull) Propeller (aircraft), propellers, and backward-mounted (pusher configuration, pusher) propellers. Historical The e ...

for Tejas Express services. The two locomotives have a power output of and will have a maximum speed of . Two modified WAP-5 locomotives (35027 and 35028) are used to haul the '' Amrit Bharat Express'' in a similar push-pull configuration. Amrit_Bharat_trainset

Technical specifications

A 24 coach (1430 t) passenger rake can be accelerated to 110 km/h in 312.1 seconds (over 6 Km), to 120 km/h in 402sec (6.9km); and to 130km/h in 556 sec (14.2km) by a WAP5. Specifications are as follows:

Performance

The WAP-5 (5440 HP) has the following capacity for

ICF coach The Integral Coach Factory (ICF) coach is a conventional Passenger railroad car, passenger coach used on the majority of Indian Railways (IR) lines. Between 1955 and 2018, more than 54,000 were produced and some were exported to other countries ...

es in tonnes: The average weight of an ICF coach is 55 tonnes.

References

External links