The British Rail Class 77, which were also known as Class EM2, is a class of 1.5 kV DC, Co-Co electric locomotive. They were built by Metropolitan-Vickers in the BR Gorton Works in 1953–1954 for use over the Woodhead Line between Sheffield and Manchester.

In September 1969 the entire class was sold to Nederlandse Spoorwegen, where they became NS 1500 Class and were renumbered in the 1500 series in the order that they left the NS workshops. The locomotives did, however, retain their names.

One locomotive, no. E27005 Minerva was broken up and used for spares and the remaining six locomotives were employed until final withdrawal in 1985.

Their main work was on The Hague to Cologne express trains, but they travelled to Maastricht Depot (sometimes with a train) on Sundays for their weekly examination before returning to traffic the following day. Occasionally they could be found on freight trains bound for the German border from Rotterdam and the surrounding area.