British Rail Class ES1

The British Rail Class ES1 was a class of two electric locomotives commissioned by the North Eastern Railway in 1902. They were of steeplecab design.

 History 
In 1870, a  was opened from Trafalgar Yard in  to the . Shaped like a horseshoe, it had tight corners, small tunnels and steep slopes. As steam locomotives and their crews found it hard, the NER wanted this railway electrified. The railway wanted the new locomotives be able to haul  trains. The entire journey on the branch line was to be completed in 4.5 minutes.

On 5 June 1905, electric operations started. For this purpose, two electric locomotives were built by . The locomotives were built to be able to work on both overhead wires and third rail. This was because third rail is dangerous for workers in yards to walk over, and the tunnels were too low for the overhead wires.


Train crews found the  too cold during early work shifts. The crews had used to the heat from steam locomotives. To fix this problem, heaters were added to the cab in 1906. The nose-fitted bow collector was changed to a roof-mounted pantograph sometime after the First World War.

In 1945, both engines were properly known as class ES1. They were simply known as numbers 1 and 2 until then. The London and North Eastern Railway changed numbers for both locomotives to 6480 and 6481 in 1946. This was changed again by British Railways in 1948, this time to 26500 and 26501.

250px|left|thumb|No. 26501 at Heaton depot, 1954

In June 1961, number 26500 was repainted from black to bright green. 26501 also received this same colour in March 1962. Both locomotives had this colour when built in 1904. On 29 February 1964, British Railways stopped using electric operations on the Quayside Branch. Class 03 diesels were used instead, until the line was closed on 16 June 1969.

The two ES1 locomotives were then put aside at Hellifield sheds in January 1965. Number 26501 was scrapped in April 1966. 26500 ended up at the Leicester museum, which was closed in 1975. It was then moved to the National Railway Museum in York. It is on display at the  in Shildon since October 2004 when the venue opened.

 Related pages 
 British Rail Class EE1
 British Rail Class EF1
 British Rail Class EB1


 Sources 

 Books 





 Other websites 

 The NER Electric Bo-Bo Class ES1 Locomotives - LNER Encyclopedia

ES1
Category:Bo-Bo locomotives