BR Period Locomotives: lnwrbns_br1977

British Railways Bo-Bo Class 85 No E3071 is seen at the rebuilt New Street station with an afternoon departure for Euston on 20th May 1967. The station had been built but the upper levels housing the station concourse, taxi areas and the shopping Mall were still being constructed. This was one of five classes (Class 81 to 85) of electric locomotives built during the early 1960s, as part of BR's policy to develop a standard electric locomotive. The five prototype classes were evaluated which eventually led to the development of the Class 86 locomotive. The locomotives of Class 85 were originally fitted with germanium rectifiers which were eventually replaced by silicon rectifiers. Forty of these locomotives were built from 1961-64 by BR at Doncaster Works.

The class were used to haul trains on the then newly electrified West Coast Main Line, from Birmingham, to Crewe, Manchester Piccadilly, Liverpool and later Preston. By 1965, electrification had spread south to London Euston. Under the earlier BR classification, the type was given the designation AL5 (meaning the 5th design of 25 kV AC locomotive), and locomotives were numbered E3056-E3095. In 1968, this was changed to Class 85, when BR introduced a new computer numbering system. From 1971 onwards, locomotives were progressively renumbered into the 85001-040 series. Fifteen locomotives were converted for freight only use, numbered in the 85/1 series and these locomotives were restricted to a top speed of 80 mph.

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