London Underground Battery-electric Locomotives - Metronet Battery Locomotives

Metronet Battery Locomotives

In February 2006, Metronet received four small battery locomotives. These were named Walter, Lou, Anne, and Kitty, names that pun the name of the line they were bought to work on, London Underground's Waterloo and City Line. They are used for hauling materials and equipment and were specially designed and built for work in narrow tunnels with tight curves and steep gradients. Clayton Equipment of Derby designed and built them in about four months, which is relatively fast. The locomotives weigh 15 tonnes each and have 200 Volt DC motors providing 75 hp (56 kW) to each axle. As a fail-safe feature they have spring-applied disc brakes that are automatically applied if something goes wrong. Built-in cameras are connected to screens in the cab to make shunting easier. Unlike London Underground's battery-electric locomotives, these battery locomotives cannot draw power from the electrified rails. Under normal use this is not a problem because they are designed to work on engineering projects in tunnels where the power is cut off anyway, but it does mean they have to return to the depot to be recharged — never far away on the relatively short W&C.