Class ES1 NER Profile and Models

The NER Class ES1 (Electric Shunting 1) was a class of two steeplecab electric locomotives commissioned by the North Eastern Railway in 1902. Both locomotives passed to the London and North Eastern Railway in 1923 and then to British Railways in 1948, but both were withdrawn before TOPS numbers could be applied. The North Eastern Railway was an enthusiastic and relatively early adopter of electric traction for railways. As part of a 1902 scheme to electrify the suburban railway networks in the Tyneside area, the NER's Chief Mechanical Engineer, Wilson Worsdell, also wished to electrify a 3⁄4-mile (1.2 km), horseshoe-shaped freight line that went from Trafalgar Yard in Manors to Newcastle Quayside Yard due to steep gradients and sharp curves making the line difficult for steam traction. The NER contracted British Thomson-Houston to build two locomotives based on a similar General Electric steeplecab design built for the Milan-Varese railway in Italy. One example of the ES1, No.1, has been preserved as part of the National Collection at the Locomotion Museum in Shildon.

(Information provided via Wikipedia)

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Surviving Examples