BB 12087

The BB 12087 is a preserved SNCF electric locomotive from the BB 12000 series, displayed as a static exhibit in Williers. The class was procured in the 1950s for the newly electrified 25 kV AC mainline between Valenciennes and Thionville, a flagship project of France's postwar railway modernisation. Their boxy, flat-sided bodywork earned the entire family the nickname Fers à repasser — French for 'steam irons'. The BB 12087 survives as a tangible record of mid-century French industrial and rail engineering.