The Nederlandse Spoorwegen

Nederlandse Spoorwegen

Nederlandse Spoorwegen , or NS, is the principal passenger railway operator in the Netherlands.Its trains operate over the tracks of the Dutch national railinfrastructure, operated by ProRail, which was split off from NS in 2003...

 (NS) Class 600 diesel locomotive

Diesel locomotive

A diesel locomotive is a type of railroad locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine, a reciprocating engine operating on the Diesel cycle as invented by Dr. Rudolf Diesel...

s were built for shunting duties. Sixty-five of the locomotives were built, numbered 601-665. They were built by English Electric

English Electric

English Electric was a British industrial manufacturer. Founded in 1918, it initially specialised in industrial electric motors and transformers...

 between 1950-1957 at either Dick, Kerr & Co.

Dick, Kerr & Co.

Dick, Kerr and Company was a locomotive and tramcar manufacturer based in Kilmarnock, Scotland and Preston, England.-Early history:Having previously been known as W.B.Dick and Company the company had built all kinds of tramway equipment and rolling stock. From 1883 the company joined with John Kerr...

 Works (601-610) in Preston, or Vulcan Foundry

Vulcan Foundry

Vulcan Foundry was a British locomotive builder sited at Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire .-History:It was originally opened in 1832 as Charles Tayleur and Company to produce girders for bridges, switches and crossings, and other ironwork following the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway...

 Works (rest) in Newton-le-Willows

Newton-le-Willows

Newton-le-Willows is a small market town within the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, in Merseyside, England. Historically a part of Lancashire, it is situated about midway between the cities of Manchester and Liverpool, to the east of St Helens, to the north of Warrington and to the south of...

. They are very similar to the British Rail Class 11

British Rail Class 11

The British Rail Class 11 was applied to a batch of diesel shunting locomotives built from April 1945 to December 1952, based on a similar earlier batch built by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway between 1939 and 1942.-Numbering:...

. Twenty-three locomotives were later fitted with radio remote-control, and renumbered in the range 671-693.

Class 500

There was also the similar NS Class 500. The difference between the two classes is that Class 600 has a "6KT" diesel engine

Diesel engine

A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber...

 of 400 hp (294 kW) and a Knorr

Knorr-Bremse

Knorr-Bremse is a manufacturer of braking systems for rail and commercial vehicles that has operated in the field for over 100 years. The company also produces door systems for rail vehicles and torsional dampers. In 2009, the Group's workforce of over 14,000 achieved worldwide sales of EUR 2.761...

 braking system for train use, a Class 500 has a "6K" diesel engine of 350 hp (260 kW) and only an engine brake.

Post-NS use

This class was withdrawn by NS in the early 2000s. Many have been preserved, including several which have been repatriated to England.

Some are still in use by the private company Rotterdam Rail Feeding