Exhibition of Electric Bo-Bo locomotive at the Festival of Britain : file of documents from the Civil Engineers, British Railways, Southern Region : 1951 : 3
I was recently bequeathed a box of materials from an ex-colleague who had, for many years, worked for British Rail. There's an eclectic mix of items including this; a file of five notes originating in the Chief Civil Engineers Department of British Railways Southern Region and regarding the movement of an "electric Bo-Bo locomotive" in connection with the Festival of Britain 1951. The major exhibition of the Festival was, famously, on London's South Bank and various items of railway rolling stock, including a new aluminium bodied London Underground car, were exhibited. This file refers to one of the country's newest and most 'up to date' locomotives in that it was one of the batch of EM1 locomotives being constructed for the new Manchester - Sheffield Woodhead route, the long drawn out electrification of which was on the verge of completion.
The scheme had been planned pre-war by the London & North Eastern Railway as an extensive re-engineering of the then important route across the Pennines but the outbreak of war saw the scheme temporarily suspended. One locomotive was however completed at Doncaster number 6701 (later 6000) and in post-war years was lent to the Dutch Railways. Finally between 1950 and 1953 57 similar locomotives, now known as class EM1 and for freight use, were built at Manchester's Gorton Works and electrically completed by Metropolitan-Vickers at Dunkinfield. You can see in the files that the special train including the locomotive was attended by MV staff.
The locomotive chosen for exhibition was 26020 (in later BR TOPS years 76020) and it was fitted with stainless steel handrails to make it look the part, a feature it uniquely retained amongst the rest of class. 26020 was in fact chosen for preservation when the class was withdrawn went the Woodhead electrification was controversially abandoned by BR in 1981. The seven locomotives of the smaller Class EM2 Co-Co locomotives for passenger train use were sold to NS, the Dutch Railway operator.
The notes show a fascinating side to railway operations; that of the civil engineer as they had to compute that any route chosen was safe, structurally and in terms of gauge, for the locomotive and train to proceed across the Region's lines. As can be seen originally two routes were considered, some rejected and others suggested, until a route was cleared. It does not make clear which route was eventually traversed to the old turntable site adjacent to London Waterloo but it appears the pantographs were removed to facilitate overhead clearances.
The route back at the close of the Exhibition is given more succinctly; a route around South London was chosen through London Bridge, Norbury, Clapham Junction, Battersea and on to the Western Region (for their consideration) near Latchmere Junction for haulage on to the 'owners' the Eastern Region at Ilford Depot. The latter is noteworthy as Iiford was part of the other pre-war LNER electrication scheme at the soon to be 'abandoned' standard of 1500vDC and the Shenfield line had been used to test some of the EM1 locomotives on delivery in 1950/51 prior to the completion of the Woodhead route's electrification in 1952.
One name here stands out to me; that of V A M Robertson. He had been a senior engineer in the Underground Group and London Transport from 1928 until 1938 when he went to the Southern Railway and thence to British Railways.
Exhibition of Electric Bo-Bo locomotive at the Festival of Britain : file of documents from the Civil Engineers, British Railways, Southern Region : 1951 : 3
I was recently bequeathed a box of materials from an ex-colleague who had, for many years, worked for British Rail. There's an eclectic mix of items including this; a file of five notes originating in the Chief Civil Engineers Department of British Railways Southern Region and regarding the movement of an "electric Bo-Bo locomotive" in connection with the Festival of Britain 1951. The major exhibition of the Festival was, famously, on London's South Bank and various items of railway rolling stock, including a new aluminium bodied London Underground car, were exhibited. This file refers to one of the country's newest and most 'up to date' locomotives in that it was one of the batch of EM1 locomotives being constructed for the new Manchester - Sheffield Woodhead route, the long drawn out electrification of which was on the verge of completion.
The scheme had been planned pre-war by the London & North Eastern Railway as an extensive re-engineering of the then important route across the Pennines but the outbreak of war saw the scheme temporarily suspended. One locomotive was however completed at Doncaster number 6701 (later 6000) and in post-war years was lent to the Dutch Railways. Finally between 1950 and 1953 57 similar locomotives, now known as class EM1 and for freight use, were built at Manchester's Gorton Works and electrically completed by Metropolitan-Vickers at Dunkinfield. You can see in the files that the special train including the locomotive was attended by MV staff.
The locomotive chosen for exhibition was 26020 (in later BR TOPS years 76020) and it was fitted with stainless steel handrails to make it look the part, a feature it uniquely retained amongst the rest of class. 26020 was in fact chosen for preservation when the class was withdrawn went the Woodhead electrification was controversially abandoned by BR in 1981. The seven locomotives of the smaller Class EM2 Co-Co locomotives for passenger train use were sold to NS, the Dutch Railway operator.
The notes show a fascinating side to railway operations; that of the civil engineer as they had to compute that any route chosen was safe, structurally and in terms of gauge, for the locomotive and train to proceed across the Region's lines. As can be seen originally two routes were considered, some rejected and others suggested, until a route was cleared. It does not make clear which route was eventually traversed to the old turntable site adjacent to London Waterloo but it appears the pantographs were removed to facilitate overhead clearances.
The route back at the close of the Exhibition is given more succinctly; a route around South London was chosen through London Bridge, Norbury, Clapham Junction, Battersea and on to the Western Region (for their consideration) near Latchmere Junction for haulage on to the 'owners' the Eastern Region at Ilford Depot. The latter is noteworthy as Iiford was part of the other pre-war LNER electrication scheme at the soon to be 'abandoned' standard of 1500vDC and the Shenfield line had been used to test some of the EM1 locomotives on delivery in 1950/51 prior to the completion of the Woodhead route's electrification in 1952.
One name here stands out to me; that of V A M Robertson. He had been a senior engineer in the Underground Group and London Transport from 1928 until 1938 when he went to the Southern Railway and thence to British Railways.