NS1302&1312

The 15 locomotives from the 1300 series taken into service by the NS between 1952 and 1956 were initially used to pull heavy goods trains. Their enormous power and tractive ability made them highly suitable for this purpose. These engines were extremely reliable and, together with the 1000 series, the strongest locomotives that the NS had at the time. Starting in 1988, the 1300 series engines were given city names and crests. The 1302 was the first to be christened ‘Woerden’ and the 1312 was named ‘Zoetermeer’. The design of the 1300 series is based on that of the French locomotive series CC 7100. In March 1955, a locomotive from this series, the CC 7107, achieved a world record. On a straight, level stretch of track in the French Les Landes, the locomotive attained a speed of 331 kilometres per hour while pulling three coaches! The last of the 1300s were scrapped in the year 2000, at which time the 1302 and 1312 were given a place in the Railway Museum.