LNER EM2

The LNER/BR EM2 Class, later designated BR Class 77, was a series of seven Co-Co electric express passenger locomotives built by Gorton Works (Manchester) in 1953–54 for the electrified Manchester–Sheffield–Wath route across the Pennines (the Woodhead route), operated on the 1,500 V DC overhead system that the LNER had planned and British Railways completed in 1954. The EM2s were the express passenger counterpart to the EM1 freight electric locomotives on the same route, providing the electric haulage for the trans-Pennine passenger services between Manchester Piccadilly and Sheffield Victoria through the Woodhead Tunnel.

The EM2's Co-Co wheel arrangement — two six-axle bogies, all powered — gave excellent adhesion for the severe Pennine gradients on both sides of the Woodhead summit, and the locomotives were capable of sustained high-speed running on the comparatively level approaches to Manchester and Sheffield. Named after goddesses and mythological figures — Electra, Ariadne, Aurora, Juno, Minerva, Pandora, and Diana — the EM2s were distinctive and handsome locomotives in BR blue and later BR blue with small yellow warning panels.

The Woodhead route was controversially closed in 1981 — despite being one of the most direct trans-Pennine routes and carrying substantial freight — and the entire electric locomotive fleet was withdrawn. Four EM2s were exported to the Netherlands for use on the Dutch national railway (NS), where they gave further service. One example, 27000 Electra, returned to Britain and is preserved at the National Railway Museum, York.