East Lancashire Railway has adopted a battery-electric locomotive built in 1944 from Manchester’s Science and Industry Museum.

The eighty-year-old loco was transported to Buckley Wells’ locomotive depot on 30 October to have its missing battery charger replaced.

Later this month, it will move to the Bury Transport Museum.

The locomotive worked at Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) in Bolton for forty-five years before being moved to the Science and Industry Museum, where it has been for more than three decades.

The model was built towards the end of the Second World War, to facilitate the UK’s shift towards building new steam locomotives.

The ELR is a twelve-and-a-half mile heritage line which runs between Heywood in Greater Manchester and Rawtenstall in Lancashire. Its Transport Museum is situated in an old goods warehouse, across the road from its Bury Bolton Street station.

Keith Whitmore, Chair of the ELR Transport Museum, said: “We are delighted to have this operational piece of Lancashire history to be displayed in our museum and are grateful to the Science and Industry Museum gifting the locomotive to us for future generations to be able to explore.

“It is pioneering for its time as a battery electric locomotive when British railways were about to embark on a substantial programme of steam locomotive building after WWII.

“We are looking forward to working closely with the Science and Industry Museum and others in the Science Museum Group on a number of new projects over the coming months.”

Sarah Baines, Curator of Engineering at the Science and Industry Museum, said: “We’re delighted to have worked with East Lancashire Railway to re-home the Battery locomotive closer to its place of original manufacture and use. The move has come as part of our ongoing work to restore and reimagine our globally important, Grade II listed Power Hall. Relocating a small number of objects from Power Hall will enable us to increase accessibility within the gallery when it reopens, and create a clear and engaging experience for visitors. As a museum, we are dedicated to telling the story of the world’s first railways and the revolution in trade, time and travel they sparked. It’s wonderful that our partnership with ELR means this piece of local railway history can now be enjoyed in new ways by new audiences.”