NS Class 1500

Seven were constructed; the bodies and bogies were manufactured at Gorton Works, with electrical equipment supplied by Metropolitan-Vickers and fitted at nearby Dukinfield.

They were withdrawn en masse in September 1968 by BR and were stored at Bury in the hope of sale to a foreign railway. Around this time, NS had been suffering from a shortage of electric locomotives. In August 1969, Dutch officials inspected no. E27002, which then performed a test run between Sheffield and Reddish Electric Depot, where they had been based. NS subsequently purchased all seven locomotives.

The class was shipped by ferry to the Netherlands in September 1969, from Harwich International Port to Port of Zeebrugge. They were then tripped to Tilburg workshops for assessment and repairs. One locomotive, no. E27005 Minerva, was considered to be beyond economical repair and was broken up consequently for spare parts. The remaining six locomotives entered the workshops for various modifications, including the fitting of Dutch headlight clusters, new single-arm pantographs and a new braking system. Driving controls were also relocated from the left side of the cab to the right. They were renumbered in the 1500 series in the order they left their workshops, starting with E27003 as 1501 in May 1970 and ending with E27002 as 1506 in June 1971.

The 1500s were primarily used on services in the southern part of the Netherlands. Typical passenger duty was Den Haag to Venlo. Freight duties were mainly operated at night and included the Rotterdam Kijfhoek freight yard to Roosendaal route.

By the early 1980s, new electric locomotives in the form of Class 1600 were being introduced. The 1500s were therefore made obsolete and withdrawals started in 1985; the final locomotives were withdrawn in 1986.

Two were repatriated to England for preservation. In May 1989, 1502 returned to the Netherlands for the NS 150th celebrations, operating a number of tours.