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| EWS Class 90034 - Rugby Photo: Charles Moorhen |
Class 90034 electric locomotive, photographed in English Welsh & Scottish Railways (EWS) livery, stands in Rugby station in the 1990s around the time of its modernisation.
Built by British Rail Engineering Ltd. (BREL) at Crewe between 1987 and 1990, the electric Class 90 locomotives, a derivative of the Class 87, and initially intended to be classified Class 87/2, were produced essentially for mixed traffic duties on sections of the UK railway network.
Due to their unreliability in the early years of service, they were unfortunately nicknamed, 'Skodas', a derogative name for the cheap and, some claim, unreliable Skoda Czech-manufactured car.
In response to the aging of various electric locos on the UK railway network, dating from the 1960s, such as Classes 81, 82, 83, 84 and 85, BREL tendered proposals to build 25 examples to replace.
In total 50 units were produced with all of the fleet in still service or stored at the present time.
At the time of writing the current Class 90 operators are - DB Cargo UK, Freightliner, and Locomotive Services.
