British Rail Class 87
The British Rail Class 87 is a type of electric locomotive designed and built by British Rail Engineering Limited between 1973 and 1975. A total of thirty-six locomotives were constructed, to work passenger and freight services over the West Coast Main Line.
The type was developed in response to the need to add extra capacity to the electric traction fleet operated by British Rail, in addition to the desire to introduce a higher performance electric locomotive than the existing Class 86, upon which the Class 87 was based. Class 87s were British Rail's flagship electric locomotives from their introduction until the late 1980s, at which point they began to be superseded by members of the newly-developed Class 90 fleetitself an improved derivative of the Class 87 design.
As a consequence of the privatisation of British Rail during the mid 1990s, all but one of the Class 87s were transferred to Virgin Trains. Under this operator, the type continued their passenger duties until the advent of the new Class 390 Pendolinos, after which they were gradually transferred to other operators or withdrawn between 2002 and 2007. For a time, the type was a staple of electrified freight operations, before it was displaced by the Class 90 in this capacity as well. By the end of the 2010s, there was only one Class 87 that remained in an operational condition in Britain, 87002, which had been initially preserved by the AC Locomotive Group and is presently owned by Locomotive Services Limited. It was previously in use with Serco Caledonian Sleeper and is intended for use on charter services. A large proportion of the fleet has been exported to Bulgaria, where they have entered regular use once again.
History
Origins and development
A requirement for more electric locomotives came about in the early-1970s, when the decision was taken to extend electrification of the West Coast Main Line from Weaver Junction north of, to, and. Extension of electrification to Glasgow was announced in March 1970, and completed on 6 May 1974, with the Class 87s being developed in conjunction with this scheme. Initially, three Class 86 locomotives were used as test-beds to trial equipment that would be used in the new locomotives. Effectively, these locomotives were Class 87s in everything but their appearance.The external appearance and layout of the Class 87 was closely based on that of the Class 86. The only major visual difference was that the 87 had two front cab windows, instead of the three of the 86, and also lacked a headcode indicator box; by 1973, visual recognition of train reporting numbers by signallers was no longer deemed to be necessary.
The Class 87s were higher performance locomotives than the preceding Class 86, with increased power and speed: power output was increased from to deal with the more demanding gradients on the northern half of the WCML, such as Shap and Beattock Summit. The top speed was raised from to, which is the fastest speed allowed on the West Coast Main Line for trains without a tilting mechanism.
The Class 87s were also fitted with multiple working equipment, which enabled locomotives to work with other members of the class, and some Class 86s, while controlled by one driver. During the 1980s, the original multiple working system was replaced with a newer system that was based on time-division multiplexing. The new apparatus enabled the Class 87 to work with various other classes of locomotives, including Class 86s, Class 90s and Class 91s. Perhaps even more importantly, the newer multiple working equipment had also enabled the type to work with the newly-introduced Driving Van Trailers.
87101
Whilst the first 35 locomotives were identical, the 36th and last member of the class, which was going to carry the number 87036 before entering traffic but was allocated 87101 instead, had major equipment differences from the rest of the class. While the 87/0s were fitted with a traditional tap changer transformer and rectifiers, 87101 had a new thyristor power control system and better anti-slip protection; it spent over a year on test before entering service in 1976.It was reported that the locomotive's hauling ability was around 20% better than the 87/0s, a feature which made it particularly suitable for freight work. The locomotive, named Stephenson after transfer of the name from 87001, worked the same services as the standard locomotives for many years, until British Rail was sectorised in the 1980s. The locomotive was then transferred to Railfreight in 1989, to be used exclusively for freight work, and was limited to.
As a freight locomotive, it was transferred to EWS and, after suffering a major failure, the locomotive was withdrawn in 1999. It was sold to the French train manufacturing company Alsthom, who used it as a source of spare parts for the remainder of the fleet before scrapping its remnants at Barrow Hill during January 2002; it was the first Class 87 to be withdrawn and scrapped. Some thyristor equipment has been preserved by AC Locomotive Group.
This locomotive was, in many respects, the prototype for later electric locomotives such as the Class 90 and.
Second batch
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, BR undertook numerous schemes, including the electrification of the East Coast Main Line and the ultimately-cancelled procurement of the Advanced Passenger Train, that had led to a significant nationwide shortage of electric traction. Various different efforts were launched during this era to alleviate this shortage, including an electrified version of the InterCity 125, the mixed-traffic locomotive and what would become the InterCity 225. It was clear that additional electric locomotives were necessary no matter what, as both the 1950s era and electric locomotives were nearing the end of their viable service lives and had become quite unreliable.The Class 87 locomotives had proved to be capable and reliable since their introduction roughly one decade earlier, thus there was considerable interest procuring additional units as a low-cost option with virtually no risk for the West Coast Main Line. BREL issued its submission to produce an initial batch of 25 Class 87/2s, which quickly received a favourable reception. The BR board decided that it would curtail its plans to procure the InterCity 225 for the WCML and instead procure the Class 87/2 to haul its intended traffic. Accordingly, the procurement of the type was assured. This move meant that no InterCity 225s would ever be procured for the WCML.
Authorisation for building the locomotives was given in 1985. Originally conceived as an updated version of the Class 87, the type was initially designated as the Class 87/2 prior to their introduction, however as it became clear that they differed considerably in appearance, and in a number of technical aspects from the older Class 87 fleet, they were redesignated as the Class 90. A total of 50 Class 90 locomotives were manufactured by BREL at the Crewe Works from 1985 to 1990; these were numbered 90001-050.
Service
British Rail
The first member of the class, 87001, entered service in June 1973 and deliveries continued until the last of the standard locomotives, 87035, entered service in October 1974. The unique 87101 was delivered in 1975 and was used for testing until it entered regular service in 1976. With the completion of the electrification to Glasgow in May 1974, the class 87s inaugurated the electric Anglo-Scottish services which they had been designed for, in doing so, they reduced the fastest London-Glasgow journey time by one hour, from six hours to five over the route. The majority of the Class 87s' workload came on express passenger services from London Euston to the North West of England and Glasgow; they were, however, also used for heavy freight work until the early-1990s, especially steel and other heavy commodities.In 1976, 87001 was the first to be named as STEPHENSON. The following year, British Rail decided that, as the flagships of their Anglo-Scottish fleet, the Class 87s should become the new Royal Scot class. Many received names with an appropriate theme; 87001 became Royal Scot and the STEPHENSON name was transferred to 87101.
During the 1980s, British Rail locomotives were allocated to separate sectors: the standard 87s were transferred to the InterCity sector and the unique 87101 was assigned to Railfreight Distribution. This change eventually saw the end of freight work for most of the class, when InterCity gained full control of the standard fleet.
The class was originally painted in the then standard British Rail Blue livery; in the mid-to-late 1980s, the class was painted in various InterCity liveries. The exception was 87101, which received a Railfreight grey livery in the early-1990s.
Post-privatisation
Virgin Trains
As a consequence of the privatisation of British Rail, all 35 87/0s were passed to rolling stock leasing company Porterbrook and were leased to InterCity West Coast operator Virgin Trains in 1997. The locomotives continued to work the same services as before, the only outward indication of the change of ownership being the repainting of the locomotives in the red Virgin Trains livery. However, Virgin's policy of introducing a new fleet of trains to quickly replace the BR-era fleet that the firm had inherited inevitably meant that the writing was on the wall for the Class 87s.As Pendolino deliveries began to come on stream from 2002 onward, 87005 City of London was the first locomotive taken out of service. Although withdrawals were slower than expected, due to the unreliability of the Pendolinos, the final day in service was set for 10 June 2005, by which time many locomotives had been withdrawn and others transferred to other operators. On this day, four locomotives hauled special trains to Wolverhampton, Northampton and Manchester. However, this turned out not to be the final workings for Virgin, as further problems with the new trains meant sporadic appearances by Class 87s hired from other operators. The final working, which was between London and Birmingham, eventually occurred on 22 December 2006; 87002 performing the honours.