MLI Plus Magazine English Electric Special Issue

This 100-page special publication celebrates the rich history, diversity and product lines of English Electric, one of the UK’s most famous engineering companies. For railwaymen and enthusiasts alike, EE has been an integral part of the UK railway network for decades.

This association began back in the days of the ‘big four’ railway companies, notably the Southern Railway to which it supplied equipment for the third rail electrification programme and also traction motors for EMUs. It also exported railway products overseas and developed a series of diesel engines that was to prove a valuable investment by the time the British Railways 1955 Modernisation Plan was launched.

The company was hugely successful, going on to provide powerplants in huge numbers, such as around 1,000 350hp 6K models for the standard BR shunter, later Class 08. Not only that, it built more than 1,000 mainline locos for British Railways from the mid-1950s until 1968 when it merged with GEC. Among these were classic workhorses, such as the Class 20s, 37s and 40s and the legendary Class 55 Deltics. It can be argued that EE was the most significant traction provider the UK rail network has ever had, with only Brush coming close.

The firm was enormous, and produced aircraft, steam turbines, power generating equipment, household appliances, electric motors, water turbines, marine propulsion equipment, guided weapons, computers and much more. It is therefore fitting that although EE no longer exists by name, its legacy lives on in BAE Systems and other parts of UK engineering. The year 2018 marks 100 years since the company was formed, so what better way to mark the occasion than to examine its achievements in the railway field.