British Rail Class 86 251 in Virgin Trains Red With White Stripes Livery Single Colour Tags.

Description

After thirty seven years of service and twenty of cold storage, Class 86 251 “The Birmingham Post” joins the Rail Tags fleet.

The Class 86 is an electric locomotive built from 1965 to 1966 and is an evolution of previous Class 8x prototypes which operated on the West Coast Mainline following electrification upgrades which started in the late 1950s. Through their thirty seven years plus of service they have proved to be a reliable and powerful locomotive capable of both passenger and freight operations.

86 251 was built in order batch E299 – E338 by English Electric at Vulcan Foundry in Newton Le Willows and was delivered as E3183. She spent her operational life on the West Coast Mainline primarily operating Cross Country services up in the north. After Virgin Trains took over the InterCity West Coast and Cross Country franchises during the dawn of privatisation, plans were made to replace the entire fleet of loco hauled trains with Class 220, 221 and Class 390 multiple units.

In 2002 as these trains entered service 86 251 was withdrawn from service and placed into storage at Long Marston. It was hoped by Europhoenix to export 86 251 to the continent with potential work in Bulgaria and Hungary. As these plans never came to fruition 86 251 was moved to Crewe Basford Hall Yard to become a spares donor for Freightliners fleet of Class 86/6s. 86 251 was never stripped and was near internally complete before being sent to CF Booth in late 2022 to be stripped for spares to allow Europhoneix to support their continental 86s before being scrapped in early 2023.

Class 86 251 was 58 years old at the time of disposal in January 2023. Spending twenty of those years not in use. We managed to get our hands on 86 251 in March 2023 and is now a part of the Rail Tags fleet.

Tag Material: 9mm Thick Steel with Paint & Vinyl

Two Single Colour Variants: VT Red and VT White Vinyl (NOT YET AVAILABLE).

ATTENTION! All our tags are cut and produced from real rolling stock components and skin, they are also covered in industrial paints. These paints can be dangerous and cause harm if inhaled or ingested. We do not recommend giving our products to young children. 

These tags are produced from steel, which is prone to rusting / corrosion. Paint is susceptible to peeling due, please take care.