Hornby OO R3582 BR 87010 King Arthur Electric Loco InterCity Executive Livery Single Arm Pantograph
A new model of the BR class 87 electric locomotives, the last in the line of British Rails first generation electric locomotives built for the speeding-up of West Coast route Anglo-Scottish services, offering a maximum speed of 110mph. This model is finished in the InterCity Executive 'raspberry ripple' livery, applied from the mid-80s to locomotives employed on express passenger services. The locomotive also carries the later single arm Stone Faiveley High Speed pantograph.
Class 87 locomotives were also fitted for multiple working, allowing two locomotives to haul heavy overnight express freight and Freightliner container trains in addition to the few overnight and sleeper passenger trains. Although initially entering service unnamed the class were later given names, mostly associated with the West Coast route, the North of England and/or Scotland. The Class 87 locomotive design resulted from a requirement for a more powerful mixed traffic electrical locomotive by British Rail, needed to cope with the route gradients of the West Coast Main Line between Weaver Junction and Glasgow. Electrification had been newly authorised over this section in 1970 and was scheduled for completion by May 1974, leaving little time to design a completely new locomotive from scratch and so British Rail decided to base the new class on the existing Class 86 locomotives.