AEG Electric Locomotive, 1913

 

 This very unusual looking electric locomotive was built by AEG (Allgemeine Elektricitats-Gesellschaft, which translates as 'General Electric Company') of Germany for the Harton Electric Railway system in the north-east of England, in 1913. The Harton Electric Railway was an industrial railway that linked the collieries at Harton and Westoe with the staithes at South Shields, very innovative and forward-thinking when the vast majority of industrial railways and even main railways were, and continued to do so until the 1960's, relied on steam locomotives.

 

The Harton Electric Railway was opened in 1908, originally using Siemens built electric locomotives (again built by a German company), later supplemented by AEG built locomotives such as this one, E9. The system was in use for over 80 years, and E9 went through the ownership from the Harton Coal Company to the National Coal Board and later British Coal, before moving to preservation at the Tanfield Railway in 1988, where it was photographed on a wet day in July 2012