British Rail Class 90

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Class 90/0, no. 90021 at York station on 3rd June 2004. This locomotive is owned by EWS and retains revised Railfreight Distribution livery.

The British Rail Class 90 electric locomotives were built by BREL at Crewe from 1987-1990. Each locomotive weighs 84.5 tons and has a top speed of 110 mph. They operate from 25 kV AC from overhead wires. The class is employed on both express passenger services and heavy freight trains.

[edit] Description

A fleet of fifty Class 90/0 locomotives were built in the late 1980s, numbered 90001-050. They were developed from the earlier Class 87 locomotives, but featured many improvements and new features. The Class 90s were primarily built to replace the ageing fleets of Classes 81, 82, 83, 84 and 85 dating from the early-1960s, which were prone to fire damage.

Class 90/0, no. 90016 at London Liverpool Street on 6th March 2004. This locomotive carries Rail Express Systems livery.

The class is fitted with rheostatic brakes, in addition to standard westinghouse air brake equipment. A Time-Division Multiplexer or TDM is fitted to enable two or more locomotives to work in multiple. This also allows a Class 90 to work a push-pull passenger train with a Driving Van Trailer, DBSO or Propelling Control Vehicle.

In the early-1990s, with the sectorisation of British Rail, twenty-six locomotives were dedicated for freight traffic reclassified as Class 90/1 and were renumbered into the range 90125-150 (with the addition of 100 to the original number). The modifications included lowering the maximum speed to 75 mph and isolating the electric train supply. Many of these locomotives were repainted into the new Railfreight Distribution two-tone grey livery, which was later replaced by a revised version in 1994. Three locomotives, nos. 90128, 90129 and 90130 received special "continental" liveries (SNCB blue, DB red, SNCF grey respectively) to celebrate the Freightconnection event in 1992.

Around the same time, five locomotives, nos. 90016-020, were repainted into the new Rail Express Systems livery and dedicated to postal trains. They were primarily used on London-Glasgow, London-Newcastle and Birmingham-Glasgow services.

Of the remaining locomotives, the first fifteen, nos. 90001-015 were operated by the InterCity sector on express passenger services. Locomotives nos. 90021-024 were operated by Railfreight Distribution but remained as standard Class 90/0 locomotives to enable them to rescue passenger trains.

Despite being built to be less susceptible to fire damage than classes 81-85, one example, 90050, caught fire at the end of September 2004, prompting its storage and subsequent stripping for spares. It is not expected to work again.

Over the years, many Class 90 locomotives have received names. The passenger locomotives were named after cities, newspapers or famous institutions. Many of the freight locomotives have been given names with a commercial link. Complete details are given below.

[edit] Current operations

Upon the privatisation of British Rail in 1996, the Class 90 fleet was divided between several operators.

Class 90/0, no. 90017 at Norwich station on 14th February 2004. This EWS-liveried locomotive was on hire to Anglia Railways.

[edit] EWS

EWS-owned 90019 in First ScotRail livery hauling the Caledonian Sleeper on 1 February 2007 at London Euston station

EWS acquired a large fleet of 20 locomotives from the Railfreight Distribution business and a further 5 from Rail Express Systems. As well as freight duties, EWS are contracted to provide locomotives for First ScotRail's Caledonian Sleeper services between Scotland and London Euston, and the Class 90s are frequently used for this purpose.

Class 90/0, no. 90049 at Ipswich station on 12th June 2003. This locomotive carries original Freightliner grey livery. During 2003 and 2004, several Freightliner locomotives were hired by Anglia Railways to cover for their ageing Class 86/2 fleet.

[edit] Freightliner

Freightliner inherited a fleet of ten Class 90/1 locomotives. These have since been returned to their original Class 90/0 configuration.

90003 Raewald of East Anglia at Stratford in 'one' livery on 30 October 2004.

[edit] 'one' Anglia

In early 2004, 'one' needed a replacement for the ageing Class 86 locomotives on the Norwich-London route. At the same time Virgin Trains was starting to get rid of its Class 90 locomotives. A deal was struck and progressly 90001-015 were delivered to Norwich Crown Point replacing the Class 86s. But the reliability wasn't good and the last few Class 86s left were kept in service and sometimes Cotswold Rail Class 47s were used. One then borrowed Class 90s from EWS and Freightliner to retire the Class 86s. The reliability got better and the borrowed locos went back to their owners. However, in 2006 reliability of the fleet is still not as it should be, and 90036 is on loan from EWS to sustain operations. EMU Class 321s also get used as cover. A massive overhaul project is currently being undertaken at Bombardier, Derby, to refurbish and improve the reliability of these locomotives.These locomotives will haul Mk3 coaching stock which have just been fully refurbished at Bombardier, Derby during Ocober 2006.

Class 90/0, no. 90015 "The International Brigade Spain 1936-1939" at Carlisle station on 27th August 2004. This locomotive is pictured hauling the final Class 90 service for Virgin Trains, with a London Euston-Glasgow Central service and return.

[edit] Virgin Trains

Virgin Trains (VT) inherited a fleet of 15 locomotives to work passenger trains on the West Coast Main Line. The locomotives, nos. 90001-015, were based at Willesden depot in London. The fleet was used on services from London Euston to Birmingham New Street, Wolverhampton, Crewe, Manchester Piccadilly, Liverpool Lime Street, Preston and Glasgow Central.

In 1998, no. 90002 became the first locomotive to be repainted in Virgin Trains red and black livery. It was named "Mission:Impossible" to launch the challenge of upgrading passenger services on the WCML. The rest of the fleet was quickly repainted into the new livery.

In 2002, new Class 390 Pendolino electric multiple units started to enter service. These 9-car units were built to replace VT locomotive-hauled trains from the WCML. The first locomotives to be replaced were the elderly Class 86/2 and some of the more unreliable Class 87 locomotives. However, since the VT Class 90 fleet was relatively small and subsequently non-standard, it was decided to retain the larger Class 87 fleet. Therefore, from March 2004, VT started to replace its Class 90 fleet, with the locomotives being transferred to the new 'one' franchise. The final service operated by a Virgin-liveried Class 90 was on 27th August 2004, when 90015 worked a London Euston-Glasgow Central and return service.

However, Virgin still operates Class 90 locomotives (hired from EWS) frequently on weekdays between Manchester Piccadilly and Birmingham New Street, calling at Stockport, Macclesfield, Stoke, Stafford and Wolverhampton in between. The Class 90 locomotives can still operate this route because a negligible amount of time is lost in comparison to a Virgin Voyager, and also there is a slight shortage of the newer Virgin Voyager trains.

[edit] Trivia

One Class 90, 90039, made history when it became the first of its class to visit all three countries in the contiguous United Kingdom - England, Wales and Scotland. It managed this by being accidentally left attached to the front of a Birmingham to Holyhead loco-hauled service operated by Virgin Trains on June 25, 2005. The 90 was dragged along the North Wales Coast main line as far as Llandudno Junction, where its presence was finally noticed and the train terminated, with 90039 being dumped in the station yard. At the present time, Network Rail has not formally certified the Class 90s as being within the infrastructure loading gauge for the North Wales Coast main line (in reality, they can go anywhere a Pendolino can go), and the type is banned west of Chester.

The locomotive was eventually collected by Class 47 no. 47830, which ran light from Carnforth to Llandudno Junction for the express purpose of doing so.

[edit] Fleet details

N.B. Currently all locomotives are in the standard Class 90/0 configuration.

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

British Rail Class 90

• AC Locomotive Group
• Class 90 at traintesting.com
• wnxx.com
• "90039 tries to go to Holyhead!"