50 YEARS AND STILL GOING STRONG

摘要

Several types of diesel locomotive are still at work more than 50 years after their classes were introduced, but only one type of AC electric loco has reached its golden jubilee in frontline service... the Class 86, which first took to the rails officially in the summer of 1965. Following the introduction of the Class AL1 to AL5 locomotives on sections of the newly electrified West Coast Main Line from 1960 (100 locos in all from various builders, later redesignated Classes 81 to 85), British Rail wanted a standard class to cope with the expansion of passenger and freight services. The AL1 to AL5 types had been viewed by senior BR management as testbeds rather than as prototypes, so the experiences with those enabled the best characteristics to be incorporated into the new fleet. One hundred were to be built - the largest number of electric locos ordered by BR in a single batch. Construction was carried out at two locations - English Electric's Vulcan Foundry, in Newton-le-Willows, which produced 60, and BR's own Doncaster Works for the remainder. It had been planned to build 60 at Doncaster and 40 at Vulcan, but because Doncaster had capacity issues, the order books were swapped.