Sleet locomotives were redundant London Underground cars converted to help with the removal of ice that built up on the conductor rails.

They were refurbished in the 1960s using equipment removed from redundant T-stock vehicles, and were joined by a pair of surface-gauge locomotives in 1961.

One of the tube-gauge locomotives went to the London Transport Museum, and the surface-gauge cars went to the Spa Valley Railway.

Following the start of the 1935/40 Programme, which included large scale stock replacement, a number of motor cars from the Central London Railway became available.

There were teething problems with the design, as it was too short to bridge some of the gaps in the conductor rails, and so subsequent conversions were 50 feet (15 m) long and included two de-icing bogies.

Sleet brushes with metal prongs were mounted either side of the cutter, so that the rail was swept before and after cutting, whichever way the locomotive was moving.

Anti-freeze was applied to the rail by spray nozzles, supplied from two 75 imperial gallons (340 L) tanks[2] mounted in the central section, and accessible through a sliding door.

In order to mitigate this, the controllers were arranged so that the motors were permanently wired in series, and could not be switched to parallel mode.

[4] Gradually, de-icing gear was fitted to service trains, beginning with the A stock on the Metropolitan line, and the need for separate sleet locomotives decreased.

[4] In 1980, the flat truck was coupled between ESL118A and ESL118B to form a leaf cleaning train, and the high-pressure sprays were augmented by a mixture of sand and chromium or stainless steel granules, which was applied to the rails in a gel to improve adhesion.