British Rail Class 77

The British Rail Class 77, also known as Class EM2, is a class of seven 1.5 kV DC Co-Co electric locomotives built at Gorton Works in 1953 and 1954 for the Woodhead Line between Manchester and Sheffield. They were the first Co-Co overhead electric locomotives built for use in the United Kingdom and were based on the smaller Class EM1; an order for 27 was cut to seven once 25 kV AC electrification had shown its benefits and the Woodhead Line became an isolated system. Bodies and bogies were made at Gorton with Metropolitan-Vickers electrical equipment fitted at Dukinfield. Numbered 27000 to 27006, they were named after characters from Greek mythology, withdrawn in September 1968 and sold in 1969 to Netherlands Railways, where they ran until 1985.