On display at Northampton Castle station on Saturday, 19th February 1966, BR 'Class 86' Bo-Bo Electric No. E3200, built by English Electric Vulcan Foundry in February 1966, brand new at an exhibition promoting the arrival of electrification at the station. It was withdrawn in November 1986 as TOPS No. 86429.

Malcolm Peakman recalls "There was an exhibition train of 4 carriages, one of which was an ex L&YR brake end still retaining the characteristic body shape. It was there all week, and moved on to different stations, according to my notes I was at Stafford on the 30th of March and 2nd April and Nuneaton from 13th to 17th April. Various draughtsmen from the Electrification drawing office were sent depending on our particular workloads, and willingness to go stand around for hours answering questions, often I am almost sorry to say not at all related to the subject of the exhibition, the hardest was actually from the Mayor's Party at Nuneaton when a train of empty carflats roared north behind a Class 5 4-6-0, meeting a train of empty carflats racing south behind another Class 5.

I seem to remember seeing the same exhibition train at Carlisle in 1974, when I had advanced in the ranks and was no longer involved in electrification. As I recall it described the power system, the feeder and substations, the OHL and grounding, and how a locomotive worked."


© Les Hanson - David Hanson Archive.