Greathead had originally planned for the trains to be hauled by a pair of small electric locomotives, one at each end of a train, but the Board of Trade rejected this proposal and a larger locomotive was designed which was able to pull up to seven carriages on its own. Twenty-eight locomotives were manufactured in America by the General Electric Company (of which syndicate member Darius Ogden Mills was a director) and assembled in the Wood Lane depot. A fleet of 168 carriages was manufactured by the Ashbury Railway Carriage and Iron Company and the Brush Electrical Engineering Company. Passengers boarded and left the trains through folding lattice gates at each end of the carriages; these gates were operated by guards who rode on an outside platform. The CLR had originally intended to have two classes of travel, but dropped the plan before opening, although its carriages were built with different qualities of interior fittings for this purpose.