History

36 locomotives were built between 1973 and 1975 at BREL Crewe Works for the electrification of the WCML from Crewe to Glasgow, replacing the pairs of Class 50 locomotives that were previously used. All of the locomotives in the series 87001-87035 were fitted with conventional tap changer control with the 36th locomotive being fitted with a special new control system that was to be trialled for fitment to all new electric classes of locomotive. Since introduction, the initial 35 locomotives have been associated with the West Coast Main Line and have rarely ventured off that route, with occasional forays onto the East Coast.

The 36th locomotive or 87101 as it became known was fitted with experimental thyristor traction control, and was used as a test bed for future designs of electric locomotive. 87101 spent much time working test trains - both passenger and freight - to assess the suitability of using the new control system. Although fitted with thyristor control, it was unique in being able to be operated in 'normal mode' as with the other 35 Class 87s. Eventually ending up as a Railfreight Distribution locomotive following sectorisation, 87101 remained a regular on the WCML working intermodal trains and its identical nature to 87001-035 in terms of driver knowledge saw it hired to Intercity West Coast in times of loco shortages. Following the sale of RfD to EWS in 1999, 87101 transferred ownership and remained on its staple diet of intermodal traffic peppered with the occasional passenger work. However, 87101 was stored unserviceable with traction motor defects in 2001. Although repairable (and indeed all traction motors were repaired but never refitted), the influx of Class 66s meant that the non-standard nature of the loco rendered it expensive to run. Rejected by the Railway Heritage Committee for inclusion in the National Collection, 87101 was offered for sale by EWS in 2002 and scrapped by Harry Needle Railroad Company on behalf of new owner Alstom for spares for the remaining 35 members of the  fleet.

Meanwhile, the 'standard' 35 87s continued in service on the West Coast Main Line. Passing to Porterbook ownership at privatisation, they remained on the WCML on lease to the the new operators of the West Coast Main Line - the Virgin Rail Group. With a large, much publicised, new train order on the way, the 87s would not last forever. That became reality in September 2003 when the first locomotive - 87005 - was withdrawn from service after a failure in traffic. Given a brief reprive during 2004 covering for the removal of Class 90s from the fleet for transfer to the (then) new Greater Anglia franchise, withdrawals continued steadily as more Pendolino's came on stream. This wasn't a quick process due to the unreliability of the new build units but, at the beginning of 2005, just 8 of the original fleet of 36 Class 87's were left in service.

Partly as a publicity stunt by owners Porterbrook (who would soon have 35 surplus locomotives) to drum up interest in the fleet from potential new lessors and partly as a farewell to the locomotives, four of the fleet were repainted in 'special' liveries; 87001 into BR Blue and 87002 into Porterbrook purple - both being unveiled at the Crewe Works open day 2003 - along with 87012 in Network SouthEast blue and 87019 in a version of LNWR Black. Bringing the final curtain down on 30 years of WCML usage (or so everyone thought at the time!) were 87010 and 87002 which worked a specially 'de-Pendolinoised' 0938 London Euston-Manchester Piccadilly on June 11th 2005.

Following the end of fleetwide use on Class 1 passenger trains, two new operators - Direct Rail Services and GB Railfreight - opted to take Class 87s into their fleets with 3 and 2 respectively hired from owners Porterbrook Leasing. DRS were to trial the locomotives on the company's expanding intermodal portfolio of work as an alternative to the diesel Class 66 locomotives operating completely 'under the wires'. The trial lasted six months and at the end it was decided that the locomotives were unsuitable.

GB Railfreight, after securing a return of mail by rail, identified a need for high speed electric 'thunderbird' locomotives and took two Class 87s on lease prior to the end of passenger workings in 2005. In late 2005, problems emerged with the Class 325 EMU motor cars necessitating locomotive haulage between London and Scotland and thus, the 87s returned to daily, Class One (albeit non-passenger) duties into Scotland. The seasonal Christmas increase in mail traffic saw additional trains run by GBRf for Royal Mail and this increased the requirement for locomotives, entailing an extra four Class 87s being added to the fleet, three of them being the ex-DRS locomotives. Modifications to the EMU motor cars took until mid-2006 to complete and loco haulage remained until that time. Reliability soon settled down and the fleet of two took more of a standby role, rescuing failures when necessary.

One final UK-based operator to express an interest in the class was Cotswold Rail, returning two locomotives to service. Initially intended for possible freight traffic from the North East of England, this never materialised and the single locomotive fleet was utilised primarily for empty stock moves - although it did make a passenger appearance with 87019 working on the London-Norwich circuit as part of the ACORP 2005 Community Railway Festival!

Mid-2006 saw an unexpected return to Class One passenger work for the class on the West Coast Main Line for three locomotives from the fleet. Modification work on the entire 'Pendolino' EMU fleet necessitated cover in the form of a high speed train. Restricted to one Rugby-London-Birmingham-London peak hour diagram, the setup was initially plagued with reliability problems. These issues were addressed and the diagram settled down to operate normally until December 2006 when a second final farewell took place.

Owners Porterbrook had always made no attempt to hide the fact that they were struggling to find work for these high speed passenger locos and started marketing the fleet abroad. Bulgaria emerged as a surprise taker for a pair of Class 87s with 87012 and 87019 making the move to the Continent in December 2006 for a series of trials. It was made clear that if successful, these trials would lead to the movement of the remaining fleet of locomotives.

The announcement that the new East Coast Franchise was to have additional services provided by Mark 3 stock and high speed electric locomotives could have been ideal work for the Class 87s but EWS Class 90s were chosen instead and late in 2007 came the news that owners Porterbrook had sold the entire remaining fleet of locomotives to Bulgaria. None of the class were to be fitted with On Train Monitoring Equipment (OTMR) which was mandatory after December 31st 2007 and so, after using up almost as many lives as the average cat has, the 'Electric Scot' class had its final deadline set.