Electric loco's
 

From the1940"s till the late 1950's (or longer?) we had rhree Electric loco's on the southern region. they were 20001, 20002 and 20003. each one was different in looks and driving controls. we used them for many different types of traing including good work. most probably better known for the excellent job they did hauling the Boat trains from Victoria to london.
I have worked on all three of these loco's in the passed. and would be interested to know how long they actualy lasted, if one of them got preserved and if anyone managed to get any pictures of them. In a book i was loaned some years ago, there appeared a picture of your truly standig on a buffer beam cleaning cab windows prior to leaving victoria with the newhaven...cant fo0r the life of me remember the name of the book thjough. so, all pictures of these 3 electric loco's welcome .
thanky you in advance.

These were the Bulleid-Raworth design. Bulleid being CME and Raworth being CEE of the Southern.
I have a caption in a book (Bulleid Locomotives by Rex Kennedy) that they were built in 1941, 1943 and 1948 All three lasted until 1969 and were only withdrawn because they were non-standard.

There is a supurb picture of '01 on a Royal Train at East Croyden in May 68.

Many thanks for that shed cat, i will go forth insearch of the book now.
they were certainly very effective locos. we nicknamed them "hornby's"
be grateful for the ISBN # of the book if you still have it.

It's an Ian Allen colour picture book from 1993, although I may have a later reprint. I only got it for the steam engines !!
ISBN 0 7110 2186 4

By the way, did you ever use the pantographs on any of these locos? Or was this another Bulleid good idea that was no use in practice?

Were these the loco's that had a flywheel device fitted in order to help them through gaps in the third rail?

there was some kind of flywheel devise i seem to remember. took a long time to slow down. The pantographs were operational and in fact were used in the sheds. I believe there was another place somewhere that the could use the pantograph system but not so sure where.
Many thanks for the Isbn # will get it on order on Saturday.
if the fireman was sent to make the tea by the driver there was a board nearby where there would be a bang and a ball of flame would flash across. used to scare the hell of you if you wernt expecting it. (the drivers use to let go of the regulater and re open it for fun. also a gap in the rails, few and far between, would cause it to happen) we had some new ones come in which were much quieter, and performed very well too. cant remember the class. E35???? or something. but its these three old ones that interest me the most.