The NS Class 600 were a class of 65 shunting locomotives built by

English Electric The English Electric Company Limited (EE) was a British industrial manufacturer formed after World War I by amalgamating five businesses which, during the war, made munitions, armaments and aeroplanes. It initially specialised in industrial el ...

in England between 1950 and 1957 for

Nederlandse Spoorwegen (, , NS ) is the principal passenger railway operator in the Netherlands. It is a Dutch state-owned company founded in 1938. The rail infrastructure is maintained by network manager ProRail, which was split off from NS in 2003. Freight operato ...

(NS). The first 10 were built at

Dick, Kerr & Co Dick, Kerr and Company was a locomotive and tramcar manufacturer based in Kilmarnock, Scotland and Preston, Lancashire, Preston, England. Early history W.B. Dick and Company was founded in 1854 in Glasgow by William Bruce Dick. The company wer ...

, Preston and the remaining 55 at

Vulcan Foundry The Vulcan Foundry Limited was an English locomotive builder sited at Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire (now Merseyside). History The Vulcan Foundry opened in 1832, as Charles Tayleur and Company to produce girders for bridges, switches, crossi ...

Newton-le-Willows Newton-le-Willows, often shortened informally to Newton, is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, Merseyside, England. The population at the United Kingdom Census 2021, 2021 census was 24,642. Newton-le-Willows is on the ea ...

. They are very similar to the

British Rail Class 11 The British Rail Class 11 was applied to a batch of diesel shunting locomotives built from April 1945 to December 1952, based on a similar earlier batch built by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) between 1934 and 1936. Overview ...

. Twenty-three locomotives were later fitted with radio remote-control, and renumbered in the range 671–693.British built shunters return to UK soil ''

Railways Illustrated ''Railways Illustrated'' is a British monthly railway magazine. Aimed at railway enthusiasts, it includes news, detail of stock changes, tours, and more. Founded in 2003 by Ian Allan Publishing, it was published by Key Publishing from 2012 ...

'' issue 35 January 2006 page 44 In 2013 there are still two locomotives active daily in The Netherlands. One is active for Railpro in Crailoo and the other is active for LOCON Benelux in

Apeldoorn Apeldoorn (; Dutch Low Saxon: ) is a municipality and city in the province of Gelderland in the centre of the Netherlands. The municipality of Apeldoorn, including the villages of Beekbergen, Loenen (Apeldoorn), Loenen, Ugchelen and Hoenderloo ...

Class 500

There was also the similar NS Class 500. The difference between the two classes is that Class 600 has a "6KT"

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which Combustion, ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to Mechanics, mechanical Compr ...

of and a Knorr braking system for train use, a Class 500 has a "6K" diesel engine of and only an engine brake. The first ten locomotives of the class 500 were built for the

War Department War Department may refer to: * War Department (United Kingdom) * United States Department of War The United States Department of War, also called the War Department (and occasionally War Office in the early years), was the United States Cabinet ...

and were taken on by NS after the war after service in Europe. NS subsequently placed orders for a further 35 locomotives. There was also an order for 15 locomotives to be delivered without engines that would have an alternative engine fitted in the Netherlands. These were numbered as 451-465 briefly before being renumbered to 701–715.

Post-NS use

This class was withdrawn by NS in the early 2000s. Many have been preserved, including several which have been repatriated to England.Dutch locos back in Britain '' Entrain'' issue 45 September 2005 page 65 Some are still in use by the private company Rotterdam Rail Feeding in the Netherlands. Privately owned 663 was moved from the

Dartmoor Railway The Dartmoor line is a railway line in Devon, England. From , the line runs alongside the Tarka Line to the site of the former Coleford Junction where it diverges west to . Previously a heritage line, it is owned by Network Rail. The route w ...

to the NRM annex at Shildon on 17 October 2006 to take up pilot duties. As of 2012 it has been at the

Ribble Steam Railway The Ribble Steam Railway is a standard gauge preserved railway in Lancashire, in the United Kingdom. It was opened to the public on 17 September 2005, running along Preston Docks. The railway began by housing much of the collection from th ...

in Preston, where it first worked after repatriation in 2005. Although part way through a repaint, 663 is in running order.

Modelling

There is a well known and accurate

H0 scale HO or H0 is a rail transport modelling scale using a 1:87 scale (3.5 mm to 1 foot). It is the most popular scale of model railway in the world. The rails are spaced apart for modelling standard gauge tracks and trains in HO. The ...

model offered in various liveries by

Roco Roco may refer to: * Roco (model railroads), an Austrian manufacturer of model railway equipment * Roco (surname), surname * Roco Sandu Roco Sandu (born 30 July 1966) is a former Romanian professional footballer. He was part of one of the bes ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ns Class 600 0600 English Electric locomotives C locomotives Standard-gauge locomotives of the Netherlands Diesel–electric locomotives of the Netherlands Railway locomotives introduced in 1950 Shunting locomotives