British Rail Class 76

The British Rail Class 76, also known as Class EM1 (Electric Mixed-Traffic 1), is a class of 1.5 kV DC, Bo+Bo electric locomotive designed for use on the now-closed Woodhead Line in northern England.

The prototype, LNER No. 6701, was completed at Doncaster Works in 1941 to a design by Sir Nigel Gresley, but electrification of the Woodhead Route, together with construction of 69 similar units, was delayed by the Second World War. It was tested on the few sections of 1500 V DC lines owned by the LNER, but had not worked any great distance by 1947 when it was loaned to Dutch Railways to help with their post-war shortage of locomotives. In September 1945, the LNER assigned it the classification EM1; previously, it had been unclassified.

The prototype locomotive, renumbered 6000 in June 1946, remained on Dutch Railways until 1952 when the Woodhead electrification was complete. While in the Netherlands, it gained the name Tommy after the nickname given to British soldiers and ran for the rest of its working life with a nameplate, which included an explanation of the origin: "So named by drivers of the Netherlands State Railway to whom this locomotive was loaned 1947-1952." It was renumbered to 26000 following the formation of British Railways.

When new, the locomotive had Westinghouse air brakes and dual air and vacuum brakes were provided for the train. For operations in the Netherlands, the vacuum brake equipment was disconnected. When returned to Britain, the vacuum brake was restored but the air brake for the train was removed.

26000 Tommy was used in everyday service, alongside the other EM1 locomotives equipped with train heating boilers. It was withdrawn in March 1970 and scrapped at Crewe two years later, when passenger services were withdrawn over the Woodhead route and several locomotives became surplus to requirements.

The time in the Netherlands had shown that the design did not ride well at high speed, due to the bogie design. The buffers and couplings were mounted on the bogies which were then linked together by a drawbar, a feature intended to remove stress from the superstructure. It was also felt that the cabs were too small with poor visibility.

Between 1950 and 1953, a further 57 locomotives were built at Gorton locomotive works, Manchester, to a modified design; these were also classified EM1. There were also to have been 24 built at Darlington Works, but these were cancelled. Electrical equipment was supplied by Metropolitan-Vickers, who completed the final assembly of the locomotives at Dukinfield Works. They were later reclassified as Class 76, under the TOPS classification scheme introduced on 28 March 1968.

The locomotives were fitted with twin diamond-shaped pantographs. At certain points on the Woodhead Line, notably in the vicinity of steam locomotive water-columns, the electric overhead lines were as high as 20 feet above the tracks. The pantographs had to stretch to almost their full height to reach the wires at some points, as BR practice utilised both raised in normal Woodhead operation in order to maximise current collection under any weather condition.