British Rail Class 87

Common card · No. 275943

The British Rail Class 87 is a type of electric locomotive designed and built by British Rail Engineering Limited (BREL) between 1973 and 1975. A total of thirty-six locomotives were constructed, to work passenger and freight services over the West Coast Main Line (WCML). The type was developed in response to the need to add extra capacity to the electric traction fleet operated by British Rail (BR), 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Rail's flagship electric locomotives from their introduction until the late 1980s, at which point they began to be superseded by members of the newly developed Class 90 fleet – itself an improved derivative of the Class 87 design.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...

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