Vossloh Eurolight

Updated: August 2026 – Among the vehicles with a Vossloh label, the Eurolight stands out. It has no centre cab and no end hoods, and it was not built in Kiel but in Valencia. It became known as the British Class 68. This page places the platform, shows its identifying features and explains why it differs so clearly from the other Vossloh diesel locomotives.

What is the Vossloh Eurolight?

The Vossloh Eurolight is a four-axle diesel-electric main-line locomotive, developed and built at Vossloh España in Valencia, Spain. The site later passed to Stadler Rail, which is why the same platform appears under different company names depending on when it was built. Its best-known version is the British Class 68.

It is conceived as a multi-purpose locomotive for mixed traffic: passenger trains and freight trains with the same machine. That requires a higher top speed than pure freight diesel locomotives and at the same time enough tractive effort for heavy loads – a design target that many types do not aim for in this way. The Bo’Bo’ wheel arrangement with four individually driven axles is the fitting technical framework for it.

The silhouette makes the difference

Within the Vossloh world, the Eurolight is visually the clear exception, and that is exactly what makes identification easy.

If you want to internalise the order of these checks in general, you will find it in the guide to identifying classes. The structure of the twelve-digit number is explained in the article on the UIC number.

Placing it: an all-rounder rather than a specialist

Criterion	Vossloh Eurolight	Kiel G/DE types
Design	Carbody, two cabs	Centre cab, two end hoods
Power transmission	diesel-electric	hydraulic (G) or diesel-electric (DE)
Main task	Passenger and freight trains on main-line duties	Shunting, trip workings, light line duties
Main market	Great Britain (Class 68)	Germany and neighbouring countries
Chance of a sighting in Germany	very low	high

The table makes it clear why the two concepts do not get in each other’s way: they solve different tasks. A German counterpart with a similar aim – a main-line diesel locomotive for mixed traffic – is the Siemens ER 20. Within the Vossloh world, the diesel-electric Vossloh DE 18 is technically the closest relative, albeit with a completely different design.

Why a Spanish locomotive carries a Vossloh label

A regular source of confusion is the question of why a locomotive built in Valencia runs under the same brand name as the Kiel shunting locomotives. The reason is corporate history, not technology.

In the late 1990s, Vossloh took over locomotive building in Kiel, with its MaK tradition, and later built up a second pillar in Spain. Both sites developed independent product lines – Kiel the shunting and trip locomotives with a centre cab, Valencia the main-line locomotives with a carbody. Later the sites went separate ways: Valencia to Stadler, Kiel into other hands.

For spotters this means: the brand name says little about the design. If you want to identify a locomotive from Vossloh, you first have to establish which product line it comes from. The silhouette usually answers that immediately – a centre cab means Kiel, a carbody with two cabs means Valencia.

Main-line or shunting locomotive – the most important basic distinction

The Eurolight is ideal for practising a distinction that applies first with every diesel locomotive: is this a main-line locomotive or a shunting and trip locomotive?

A main-line locomotive is designed for running. It has cabs at both ends so that it can run in either direction without running round, an enclosed body for aerodynamics and weather protection, and a top speed that suits line services. The UIC type code is 92.

A shunting or trip locomotive is designed for work at a standstill and at walking pace. It has a cab in the middle so that the view of both ends of the vehicle and of the shunting staff remains clear, plus walkways, handrails and steps. Pure shunting and small locomotives carry the type code 98.

In between lies a large grey area where most Kiel types sit: shaped like a shunting locomotive, approved like a main-line locomotive, type code 92. The Vossloh G 2000 BB is a good example – it looks like a large shunting machine and still hauls main-line freight trains.

The Eurolight, by contrast, clearly belongs in the first camp. If you make this assignment first, you have already halved the field of possible types before checking the first detail. That is exactly why it comes right at the start of every good identification routine.

Spotting and archiving

Because the Eurolight is not an everyday vehicle in Germany, the spotting task shifts: it is less about the good location and more about the right information at the right time. Delivery runs, trade fair appearances and special workings are the realistic opportunities, and they are usually announced only at short notice.

That makes it all the more important that the few pictures you get remain easy to find later. A cleanly structured archive with date, location, vehicle number and type is worth more for rare vehicles than for any everyday subject – how to build one is described in the guide to the photo archive for spotters.

Common mix-ups

Verdict

The Vossloh Eurolight shows how little a brand name reveals about a design. It shares only the label with the Kiel shunting locomotives, nothing else: different design, different task, different market, different site. If you start identification with the silhouette rather than the logo, you will get there in a few seconds with this one.