The classification of railway locomotives is roughly based on the use and traction power.

From the use of points, there are passenger locomotives, freight locomotives and shunting locomotives. The passenger locomotive is the locomotive that pulls the passenger car, relative to the freight locomotive, the traction of the passenger locomotive is smaller and the speed is faster. This is because the formation of the bus is less, generally more than 20, the load is much smaller than the truck, there is no need to "big horse car" caused by waste.

Freight locomotives are, of course, used to pull freight cars. In addition to heavy-duty trains in China, the general freight train grouping is 60 knots, with a carrying capacity of about 3,500 tons. Obviously, freight locomotives have much more traction than passenger locomotives, but not as fast as passenger locomotives.

Shunting locomotive mainly completes various shunting operations such as vehicle switching at the station and picking up and sending vehicles in the freight yard. It is characterized by flexibility, so the body is short, can pass through a small curve radius, and the speed is relatively not high. Locomotives are divided by traction power, and there are currently steam locomotives, internal combustion locomotives and electric locomotives.