Railway Herald
On Saturday 2nd September 1978 Class 71 No. 71003 sits withdrawn and dumped outside the back of Ashford Chart Leacon MPD, Kent. Built at BR Doncaster Works as No. E5018 in April 1960 she was one of a class of 24 750V 3rd rail Electric locos for the Southern Region that also carried a single roof mounted pantograph for safe working in overhead electrified marshalling yards on the region. Following the decision to convert 10 members of the class to Electro-Diesels in the mid 1960s she was renumbered as No. E5003 becoming Class 71 No. 71003 when the TOPS scheme was introduced at the end of 1973. Being third rail only locomotives they never strayed far from the Eastern side of the Southern Region and as the 1970s dawned found less and less use. The remaining class of 14 electric locos were all withdrawn from Ashford Chart Leacon MPD during November 1977 and No. 71003 had the dubious honour of being the last one to be dismantled, ironically at her birthplace BREL Doncaster Works in March 1980. The pioneer of the class No. E5001 passed to the National Collection and is currently displayed at Barrow Hill Roundhouse.
Bob Woolnough
