London Underground Sleet Locomotives

London Underground Sleet Locomotives

Sleet locomotives were redundant London Underground cars converted to help with the removal of ice that built up on the conductor rails. The main batch of eighteen tube-gauge locomotives were built between 1938 and 1941 from motor cars originally built in 1903. They were refurbished in the 1960s using equipment removed from redundant T-stock vehicles, and were joined by a pair of surface-gauge locomotives in 1961. In addition to de-icing duties, some of them were also used for experiments in clearing leaves from the running rails. They had all ceased to operate by 1985. One of the tube-gauge locomotives subsequently went to the London Transport Museum, and the surface-gauge cars went to the Spa Valley Railway.

Read more about London Underground Sleet Locomotives:  ESL100 - ESL117, ESL118A / ESL118B, Sleet Tender ST1 / ST2

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