Banner
Navigation
loco-info.com
The reference for locomotives and railcars
Navigation
Random
Search
Compare
Settings
Swiss Federal Railways Ae 4/6
go back
Switzerland | 1941
12 produced
Image of locomotive
SBB Historic

As the Ae 8/14 double locomotives were too huge for express trains on the Gotthard, the SBB ordered a new type of locomotive in World War II that was essentially half an Ae 8/14 with two cabs. It had to have multiple controls to use two locomotives together when required for a heavy freight train.

The locomotives had four powered axles in the main frame and one leading axle on each end. The central carrying axle of the Ae 8/14 could be dispensed with due to weight reductions in some places. Each leading axle and the adjacent driving axle formed a Java bogie, with lateral play of 120 and 20 mm, respectively. Power was transmitted via the SLM universal drive. The dynamic brake was able to feed power back into the overhead line. With an hourly output of 4,200 kW, they were able to haul 375 tonnes at 2.6 percent with 75 km/h. The top speed was 125 km/h.

Between 1941 and 1944, twelve were built by SLM with the electrical part from BBC, Oerlikon and SAAS. The NS received ten locomotives of class 1000 in 1946 which were basically a variant of the Ae 4/6 for the Dutch DC network. Now the Ae 4/6 was the standard express locomotive on the Gotthard. They were rarely used in freight traffic since they tended to slip with heavy loads and the multiple controls often made problems.

Between 1961 and 1966, seven were rebuilt with the BBC spring drive. At the same time, the Ae 6/6 became the new standard express locomotive on the Gotthard. Now the Ae 4/6 was assigned to other tasks like helper service. The last one was withdrawn in May 1983 and all were scrapped.

Variantas builtrebuilt 10807-11812
General
Built1941-19441961-1966
Manufacturermechanical part: SLM, electrical part: BBC, Oerlikon, SAAS
Wheel arr.1A-B-A1 
Gauge4 ft 8 1/2 in (Standard gauge)
Dimensions and Weights
Length56 ft 7 1/2 in
Wheelbase40 ft 0 5/16 in
Rigid wheelbase10 ft 6 in
Service weight231,485 lbs244,713 lbs
Adhesive weight174,165 lbs182,983 lbs
Axle load43,541 lbs45,746 lbs
Boiler
Variantas builtrebuilt 10807-11812
Power Plant
Power
Power sourceelectric - AC
Electric system15.000 V 16⅔ Hz
Hourly power5,632 hp (4,200 kW)
Continuous power5,310 hp (3,960 kW)
Top speed78 mph68 mph
Starting effort48,896 lbf61,598 lbf
Calculated Values
electric locomotive
passenger
express
last changed: 06/2025
class diagram of the SBB
class diagram of the SBB
SBB Historic
Search
loadding loading...

We use cookies to save the following settings:

  • selected navigation structure
  • selected language
  • preferred units
  • spelling of railway company names

If you refuse the use of cookies, the settings will only be retained for the current session and will be reset to the default values the next time you visit the site.

Display of units

Here you can set the desired unit system for the technical data.

  • Metric: Lengths in meters, weights in tonnes, and volumes in cubic meters
  • Imperial (UK): Lengths in feet/inches, weights in long tons and volumes in imperial gallons
  • Imperial (US): Lengths in feet/inches, weights in pounds, and volumes in US gallons
  • Individual: Depends on the country of origin of each locomotive
Operator names

Here you can set the display of railway company names.

  • Short: Abbreviation or short form of the name
  • Standard: commonly used name, partially translated to English
  • Complete: full name in local language