- Class: JB (later Class 73/1) Electro-Diesel
- Designer: English Electric
- Wheel Arrangement: Bo-Bo
- Built: 1966, English Electric, Vulcan Foundry
- Numbers Carried: E6040 (was 73133 under TOPS)
- Arrived On Bluebell Railway: 25 April 2023
- Present Location: Bluebell Railway
- Owned By: Private
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Known latterly as Class 73s, these were electric locomotives for the Southern Region’s third-rail system, but incorporating a 600 hp diesel engine, similar to those used in the Southern Region’s DEMUs, intended for use in sidings and other non-electrified areas. Six prototypes, the ‘JA’s, were designed and built at Eastleigh in 1962 using English Electric equipment. They were built to the narrow ‘Hastings Gauge’, giving universal track access across the region.
43 more Electro-diesel Locomotives, ‘JB’s in Southern Region classification, were ordered from English Electric, built between 1965 and 1967, as part of the fleet to operate the newly electrified Waterloo-Southampton/Bournemouth line. Initially numbered E6007-E6049, they differed slightly from the ‘JA’s, most notably having higher tractive effort and a 90mph maximum speed.
73133 (as E6040 had become in 1973) was named ‘The Bluebell Railway’ in September 1990, and ran onto what is now Bluebell property two years later at the ceremony passing ownership of the viaduct at East Grinstead to us.
The locomotive just escaped being scrapped in 2004, entered preservation, but returned to main-line use in 2013 and having been used as a shunter at Bournemouth Depot and more recently at Eastleigh Works, was privately purchased from there in December 2022 by a member of the Bluebell Railway’s locomotive department. It was refurbished at his expense at Eastleigh Works in early 2023, prior to moving to the Bluebell Railway.
