LNER 26000 Tommy

LNER No. 6480 / 26000 Tommy was a prototype Bo+Bo electric locomotive built by the London and North Eastern Railway at Doncaster Works in 1941, designed by Nigel Gresley for the proposed electrification of the Woodhead route between Manchester and Sheffield through the Pennines. Tommy represented the LNER's vision for main-line electric traction on its trans-Pennine heavy freight and passenger route, and was built to evaluate the 1,500 V DC overhead electric system that the LNER had proposed for the Woodhead electrification.

The Woodhead route — a severely graded main line through the Pennines with a long tunnel at Woodhead Summit — was one of the heaviest and most demanding freight routes in Britain, carrying trans-Pennine coal traffic between the Yorkshire coalfields and the industrial towns of Lancashire and Cheshire. Electric traction was proposed because the sustained gradient working in the tunnel was particularly demanding on steam locomotives, and the absence of steam and smoke in the tunnel would improve working conditions significantly.

Tommy was built during the Second World War and was unable to operate on the Woodhead route during the conflict, as electrification had been suspended. It was used for evaluation at Ilford. The Woodhead electrification was eventually completed in 1954 under British Railways, by which time the original Gresley/LNER equipment had been superseded by the EM1 and EM2 electric locomotive classes that BR ordered for the route. Tommy itself was rebuilt to the EM1 specification and renumbered 26000, entering service on the electrified Woodhead route. None of the original LNER electric locomotives in their prototype form was preserved, though the EM2 Electra is preserved at the National Railway Museum.