SNCF Class BB 8500

The SNCF Class BB 8500 is a class of electric locomotives that Alsthom, the company now called Alstom, built for the French national railway SNCF. They are the direct current counterpart of the 25 kV alternating current BB 17000, and the dual system BB 25500 combines the two. Fitted with monomotor bogies offering two different gear ratios, the locomotives can trade top speed for tractive effort, which made them suitable for both freight and passenger trains. They were nicknamed Danseuses, or dancers, for their tendency to sway from side to side at speed, which led to them being blacked at a number of depots. Built in three distinct batches with detail differences, they remain in use as mixed traffic locomotives, mostly on TER services. Thirty were reclassified BB 88500 for empty stock moves, twenty were rebuilt in 2001 for freight banking on the Maurienne line, and BB 8616 is preserved at Mohon.