After
World War II almost no
electric locomotives survived in
Poland, and local industry was not yet able to start the production of such vehicles. The solution for this problem was sought mainly abroad and resulted in a decision to buy some components from
England. The design for EP02 by
Central Rail Industry Construction Office in
Poznań was ready in 1951.
Introduction In 1951 the design was sent to Pafawag, but the construction met with a few obstacles, mainly lack of material and parts. The first locos were directed into
Warsaw-Ochota railway district in 1953. Soon many construction faults appeared, like wheel spinning after reaching speed, inconstant drive and vertical shakes. The faults were systematically corrected, and the experience was used during designing the
ET21 and
EU06.
Production Operation All the EP02s initially operated in
Warsaw, but soon were moved to
Łódź. Once there were enough
EU07s, all EP02s were moved to
Dębica. In 1971 the last three machines were retired and reassigned to work as
heating power supplies (used solely to supply electric power from overhead to heat cars during longer stops at stations, it involved parking them at selected stations and removal of most of the electric, brake and control equipment, retaining only the pantographs and switches associated with the
HEP supply). This prolonged EP02s’ life by 24 years—EP02-07 was working as a heating power supply in
Zakopane until 1992 and EP02-08 in
Przemyśl until 1996. During the operation, the locomotives were modified by the addition of automatic brakes and heating systems. ==Locomotive assignment==