As the production of main line steam locos was being phased out in Czechoslovakia in the mid-1950s, the Skoda works in Plzeii started to specialise in electric traction. Following World War Ⅱ, the state railways, CSD, had already decided to electrify the most important railway corridors in the north and east of the country using the 3000 V DC system. The first phase of this major project would last from 1949 to 1964. Design history In order to jump-start the production of modern electric locos, Skoda acquired a licence from the Swiss consortium of SLM and Secheron for the Bo-Bo Class Ae 4/4 design, which had been successfully developed in Switzerland in 1944 with the delivery of eight such locos to BLS by 1955. Indeed, these Swiss electrics were the first modern locos to use only powered bogies and do away with the need for trailing axles. Skoda was keen to apply this concept.
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