Class 87 Profile and Models

The British Rail Class 87 is a type of electric locomotive designed and built by British Rail Engineering Limited (BREL) to work passenger 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, in addition to the desire to introduce a higher performance electric locomotive than the existing Class 86, numerous aspects of which being incorporated into its design. The Class 87 fleet was operated as the flagships of British Rail's electric locomotive fleet until the late 1980s, at which point the Class 90, an improved derivative of the Class 87, started to come on stream. It was further superseded by the arrival of the higher performance Intercity 225 only a few years after that, but the fleet remained in widespread use through the 1990s. As a consequence of the privatisation, 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until the advent of the new Class 390 Pendolinos, after which they were gradually transferred to other operators or withdrawn between 2002 and 2007. The class saw use on a variety of freight services and one example is still in use on charter services to this day. A large proportion of the fleet have been exported to Bulgaria, where they have entered regular use once again.

(Information provided via Wikipedia)

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