They're electrifying

There's been an absolutely scandalous shortage of trains recently on Reciprocating Motion, something I can only ascribe to my head being turned by some tarty little pieces of architecture.


I'm delighted that the floodgates have now burst open, with these, a selection of the pioneering and rather brutish 1500v DC locomotives from the trans-Pennine electrification scheme which opened in 1953, where they operated very heavy freight and express passenger services over the Woodhead route -- one of the most difficult routes in Britain.


Why am I sharing these with you now?


Well I'm delighted to report that a model railway shop has commissioned Danish model train manufacturer Heljan to produce models of both the Bo-Bo (that's 4 axled) EM1 and the Co-Co (6 axled) EM2 (which later were known as, respectively, Classes 76 and 77).


These glorious beasts were actually short-lived: shortly after the scheme was finished British Railways decided to standardise on 25kv AC electrification, so Woodhead was left as an isolated, non-standard system. And the Co-Cos were vastly more powerful and faster than the Woodhead's modest passenger expresses needed, so they were sold en masse to the Dutch national railways.


But I have a huge soft spot for them: the Bo-Bo was designed by maestro Gresley himself before the Second World War, and it proved to be more than a match for the appalling heavy work it was required to do. The Co-Cos were still hauling express passenger services in The Netherlands nearly three decades later.

I'm having me some of them.