British Rail Class 70 (electric)

The British Rail Class 70 was a class of three third rail Co-Co electric locomotives. The first two, numbered CC1 and CC2, were built at Ashford Works between 1940 and 1941 and in 1945, with the Southern preferring French practice in locomotive numbers so that the number showed the wheel arrangement. Alfred Raworth designed the electrical equipment and Oliver Bulleid the body and bogies, and the cab shape owed much to the 2HAL electric multiple units. Construction was exempted from wartime shutdowns because of the labour and fuel it promised to save over steam, though shortages repeatedly slowed it. A third, 20003, was built by British Railways in 1948. All three were withdrawn between October 1968 and January 1969, and none was preserved.