The Railway Museum (Dutch: Het Spoorwegmuseum) in Utrecht is the Dutch National Railway Museum.
It was established in 1927 and since 1954 has been housed in the former Maliebaan station. The museum currently owns a large and varied collection of rolling stock.

Diesel-Electric loco WD 70269 (NS 508) of the type DE-rangeerlocomotief WD 70260 - 70269 (serie NS 501 - 510). It was built in 1944 by London-Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS), Derby (UK).
Preserved at the Het Spoorwegmuseum / Railway Museum in Utecht Maliebaan former Station. July 15th, 2022.

The WD 70269 was ordered in 1944 by the British Ministry of Supply from the workshop of the London-Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS).
These shunting locomotives belong to an English standard type, some of which came to mainland Europe with the liberation army in 1944. The WD 70260 - 70269 initially served with the SNCF in Calais, with the SNCB in Antwerp South and with the DB in Cleve, Goch, Emmerich and Rees Empel. The WD 70264 and 70269 shunted in Nijmegen at the end of 1945, after which the 70269 came to Utrecht in September.

The locomotives made such an impression on NS that in 1946 the 70260, 70261, 70264 to 70269 and a few months later the 70263 and 70262 were bought from an army dump. They were renumbered in that order as NS 501 - 510 and painted in the standard green colour.

They were well liked, so that from 1949 first 10 more were added (NS 511 - 520) and from 1953 another 25, just like the previous one with only a locomotive brake (NS 521 - 545) and in addition another 65 with a train brake (NS 601 - 665) .

With their maximum speed of 32 km/h they were only suitable for shunting, but they could do a tremendous amount of work, especially on the large shunting yards.

From 1971 these oldest locomotives were taken out of service.
Locomotive 508 was donated to the NSM in 1975 as a representative of the first 'Bakkies' in the Netherlands.

In 1913, the 300th anniversary of the Treaty of Utrecht was celebrated. The Railway Museum organized the exhibition 'Sporen naar het Front' on that occasion. In connection with this, locomotive 508 received its original black trim and the number WD 70269 in April 2013.

Photo by Guido Allieri (guido@allieri.com)