86247 cab restoration is completed at Crewe
THE RESTORATION of the No.2 end cab from scrapped 86247 has been completed by its owner, James Mather, at Crewe Heritage Centre, with the cab immaculately restored into Anglia Railways livery.
Since buying the cab just over two years ago, a number of modifications made to the front end by Europhoenix have been reversed, returning the cab to how it would have looked before being withdrawn by Virgin West Coast in 2003.
Anglia Railways operated a number of Class 86s on its services between London Liverpool Street and Norwich before they were replaced by Class 90s. While 86247 was never operated by Anglia Railways, ending its operating days with Virgin West Coast, Mr Mather decided to celebrate the Anglia era of Class 86 operations on his cab because Crewe Heritage Centre already has a Virgin Trains exhibit in the form of 87035 Robert Burns, which he is also actively involved in (Railways Illustrated issue 232).
Mr Mather told Railways Illustrated that he did consider renumbering the cab as 86252, which was an Anglia Railways locomotive, but decided to retain its correct identity and, as none of the surviving Class 86s are likely to be repainted into the livery, he thought it would be good to revive it on the cab from 86247.
The interior of the cab has also been restored, apart from a couple of items that Mr Mather is still trying to source, while one of the ammeters from the cab has recently been loaned to Les Ross MBE for use on main line-registered 86259 Les Ross/peter Pan. Following withdrawal by Virgin Trains in October 2003, 86247 was one of a large number of Class 86 locomotives acquired by Europhoenix, which converted and reactivated a number of the locomotives for export to Hungary and Bulgaria. 86247 was given a number of lighting and front end modifications, serving as a demonstrator locomotive for the company, and was repainted into the company’s distinctive grey, red and blue colours.
Despite the cosmetic transformation, the locomotive was never reactivated and remained in store at Long Marston until being sold to Freightliner as a spares donor and moved to Crewe Basford Hall. When 86247 was scrapped in December 2015, both cabs from the locomotive were saved and moved to Richard Benyon’s Cab Yard project at Bridgend. Mr Benyon subsequently sold the No.2 cab to Mr Mather in March 2020 but has retained the No.1 end cab as part of his collection.