They had been withdrawn en masse in September 1968 by BR, and were stored at Bury in the hope of sale to a foreign railway.

The remaining six locomotives entered the workshops for various modifications, including the fitting of Dutch headlight clusters, new pantographs and a new braking system.

They were renumbered in the 1500 series (1500 representing 1,500 V DC overhead) in the order they left their workshops, starting with E27003 as 1501 in May 1970 and ending with E27002 as 1506 in June 1971.

Dutch manufacturer Philotrain offered a high quality certified small series brass model in the 1980s, which sold out fairly quickly.

The model has been temporarily out of production as Athearn ceased delivery of parts, but it has now re-appeared in the KleiNSpoor catalogue as partially complete kit only.