This unusual locomotive was constructed to works no 2000 by the Leeds firm of Greenwood & Batley Ltd in 1945. It is a four wheeled battery-electric locomotive and draws it’s power from banks of lead-acid cells which are housed in the bonnets at each end of the centre cab.
It was used by the Central Electricity Generating Board for shunting wagons at Stourport Power Station until the conversion to merry-go-round system of coal delivery rendered the locomotive redundant. The locomotive was used on many occasions whilst on display at Southport, and at the time was considered the only operational locomotive of it’s type in preservation. Unfortunately, the cells have since become unserviceable. We had originally hoped that sponsorship may have been available to replace these extremely expensive resources, and the locomotive will be used to manoeuvre vehicles in and out of our museum complex, reducing the pollution and dust created by other types of locomotive. Sadly, due to the high cost of this activity we haven’t been able to progress this.
The locomotive is currently housed in the museum building as a static exhibit, where work has been completed on a full repaint.
