SNCF Class BB 30000
The SNCF Class BB 30000 electric locomotives were built by Fives-Lille, CEM and MTE in 1961. They were the tri-current version of BB 9400 "Vespa" locomotives, of which they were closely derived, and inherited much of the knowledge of the experiences of BB 20004.
History
With electrification of the mayor European axes pending in the late-1950s, SNCF engineers dreamed of a locomotive type which could operate of all 4 major European currents: 1.5 kV DC, 3 kV DC, and. Unfortunately, the technology to develop such kinds of locomotives wasn't advanced enough at that time. Therefore, the engineers stuck to the idea of realizing a reliable series of dual-voltage locomotive first.But, with the electrification of the Paris-Brussels line pending, the engineers wanted to modify the locomotives so that they also could operate of the Belgian 3 kV DC. As the locomotive had still primitive DC motors, this could be done by connecting them together in series or series-parallel.
In 1961 the 2 locomotives were delivered as BB 26001 and BB 26002 and closely resembled to their DC counterparts BB 9400, but had also some differences: they had already double lights instead of a single couple on BB 9400/BB 16000 series and their pantographs were inverted.