SBB AE 4/7

SBB/CFF/FFS Ae 4/7 

  
The locomotives of the Ae 4/7 series were designed for passenger and freight transport by the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB). A total of 127 locomotives were built between 1927 and 1934 and were in service until 1996, the year in which the last Ae 4/7 was decommissioned. At the end of the twenties of the last century, SBB needed electric locomotives that could be used on lines with a maximum gradient of 12 per thousand. In the meantime, SBB had gained good experience with the Buchli articulated lever drive of the Ae 3/6 I series and therefore commissioned the construction of two prototypes from SLM and BBC in 1925, which proved to be so successful that orders for three sub-series were placed with the Swiss railway industry.

The farewell of the Ae 4/7 locomotives did not begin until 1981 and lasted until the end of 1996, but in 1990 more than a hundred units were still in service, a number that had fallen to 72 by the beginning of 1995. The last Ae 4/7 was taken out of service in 1996, but no less than 23 units were saved from the cutting torches. The vast majority of them are still roadworthy and are owned by various Swiss museum railways. Locomotive 11026 belongs to the Mikado1244 association in Brugg. https://www.mikado1244.ch/