| Brand: |
Gaugemaster |
| Part Number: |
GM4240303 |
The Class 86 was officially introduced into service in August 1965. The entire fleet was delivered into service within 24 months of that date. Throughout the 1970s, the class saw use on both express passenger and freight services. Class 86/0 locomotives had their maximum speed reduced to 80 mph in 1979, due to the excessive rough riding and were then used mainly on freight, whilst the higher-speed Class 86/1 and Class 86/2 tended to be used primarily for passenger trains. By the end of the 1980s, the need for a standard fleet saw all remaining Class 86/0 and Class 86/3 locomotives fitted with improved suspension and converted to Class 86/4. These locomotives were now inter-operable with Class 86/2 and thus gave greater operational flexibility. In the late-1980s and early-1990s, the majority of the Class 86/4 subclass were dedicated to freight traffic. As a result, they had their electric train heating isolated and their maximum speed reduced to 75 mph. These locomotives were reclassified as Class 86/6 and were
renumbered by adding 200 to their number. Starting on 10 May 1992, six Class 86/6s were returned to Parcels use. These were renumbered back to class 86/4, as follows: 86405, 86411, 86414, 86415, 86428 and 86431. All six remained in Railfreight Triple Grey livery. The Railfreight sector introduced its new two tone grey livery in 1987, initially without sub-sector logos due to shared operations on speedlink and Freightliner duties. Four Class 86s received Railfreight General logos from June 1988, but all Class 86/6 locomotives carried Railfreight Distribution livery beginning in January 1990. Finally, the parcels sector introduced a new red and grey livery with repaints from July 1990 to July 1991, which was replaced with Rail Express Systems livery applied between December 1991 to February 1995. We are pleased to be bringing the only Network SouthEast example (86401) to market, which is supplied without the Northampton Town nameplates to provide modellers choice as to whether to portray this locomotive named or unnamed on their layout. |
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