The Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS) Class 1200 was a class of electric locomotives that were in service from 1951 until 1998. They were designed by

Baldwin Baldwin may refer to: People * Baldwin (name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the surname Places Canada * Baldwin, York Regional Municipality, Ontario * Baldwin, Ontario, in Sudbury District * Baldwin's Mills, ...

and built by

Werkspoor Werkspoor N.V. was the shortened, and later the official name of the Nederlandsche Fabriek van Werktuigen en Spoorwegmaterieel. It was a Dutch machine factory, known for rolling stock, (ship) steam engines, and diesel engines. It was a successo ...

(

Utrecht Utrecht ( ; ; ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. The ...

) between 1951 and 1953. The electrical equipment was built by N.V. Heemaf (

Hengelo Hengelo (; Tweants dialect, Tweants: ) is a city in the eastern part of the Netherlands, in the Twente region, in the province of Overijssel. It is part of a larger urban area that also includes Enschede, Borne, Overijssel, Borne, Almelo and Ol ...

) to a design by Westinghouse. Some parts (the bogies, and the electrical installation) were made in the United States as part of the

Marshall Plan The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred $13.3 billion (equivalent to $ in ) in economic recovery pr ...

. Originally 75 locomotives were ordered, but the order was reduced to 25 locomotives and more locomotives of the French Class 1100 locomotives were ordered instead.

History

Nederlandse Spoorwegen

The 1200 class was retired by the NS in 1998. Locomotives 1201, 1202 and 1211 were obtained for preservation by the Stichting Klassieke Locomotieven group (1201) and the

Dutch Railway Museum The Railway Museum () in Utrecht is the Dutch national railway museum. It was established in 1927 and since 1954 has been housed in the former Maliebaan station. History The museum was established in 1927 and was initially located in one of the ...

(1202 and 1211). A further five locomotives, numbers 1214, 1215, 1218, 1221 and 1225, were bought by the Dutch freight operator

ACTS Nederland BV The Acts of the Apostles (, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; ) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of its message to the Roman Empire. Acts and the Gospel of Luke make up a two-pa ...

in 1999 and were renumbered to 1251–1255.

ACTS Nederland BV, EETC

ACTS Nederland BV continued to use its five 1200 class locomotives in freight and charter service until 2010. Locomotive 1253 was taken out of service in 2003 and was used as a parts donor, while locomotive 1252 was taken out of service in 2007. The remaining three locomotives were withdrawn in 2009-10 by ACTS and all except parts donor 1253 were sold to Euro-Express-Treincharter BV (EETC). As of January 2011 engines 1251 and 1252 had been returned to working order by EETC whilst engine 1254 was being overhauled. The two operational locomotives were being used to haul the empty Citynightline train from Munich and Zurich and

EuroNight EuroNight, abbreviated EN, is a European train category that denotes many mainline national and international night train services within the Western and Central European inter-city rail network. Overview The classification and name were brough ...

Jan Kiepura train from Moscow, Minsk, Warsaw, Prague and Copenhagen between

Amsterdam Centraal railway station Amsterdam Centraal station ( ; Railway stations in the Netherlands, abbreviation: Asd) is the largest railway station in Amsterdam, North Holland, the Netherlands. A major international Rail transport, railway hub, it is used by 192,000 passeng ...

and

Watergraafsmeer The Watergraafsmeer () is a polder in North Holland, Netherlands. It was reclaimed in 1629. In the 17th and 18th centuries, there were many '' buitenplaatsen'' in the Watergraafsmeer, though nowadays only one, Frankendael, remains. It is among t ...

. They are also used on charter trains and transporting carriages to and from the EETC workshop in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

Sixty years of the 1200 class

On 12 November 2011, all eight existing engines were brought together in Amersfoort for a railway enthusiast event to celebrate 60 years since the 1200 class entered service. The display was organized by the NVBS (Nederlandse Vereniging van Belangstellenden in het Spoor- en tramwegwezen), the Dutch national railway enthusiasts' body which was celebrating its 80th anniversary.

Märklin-Edition

In 2014 locomotive 1252 was repainted to celebrate 175 years of railways in the Netherlands. As part of this, the locomotive was decorated with a promotional slogan by Märklin "The original must be Märklin - Märklin congratulates the Netherlands on 175 years of railways" in Dutch on one side of the locomotive body and German on the other. The locomotive was offered as a one-time series HO scale model by Märklin as item No. 37128 in 2014.

Fairtrains

Since 2017 all engines were decommissioned by their respective owners, but the Fairtrains foundation made number 1251 operational again in 2018 for being hired by the Railexperts company. The objective of Fairtrains is to have museum equipment restored and preserved from the revenues of their use. In case of sufficient interest, some more machines of this class are kept behind for refurbishment.

Gallery

References

External links

* {{NS locos

1200 The Proleptic Gregorian calendar called it a century leap year. Events By place Europe * Spring – Boniface I, Marquis of Montferrat, sends envoys to Venice, Genoa and other city-states to negotiate a contract for transport to t ...

Baldwin locomotives 1500 V DC locomotives Co′Co′ locomotives Electric locomotives of the Netherlands Standard-gauge locomotives of the Netherlands Railway locomotives introduced in 1951 Co′Co′ electric locomotives of Europe