British Rail Class 91

A class 91 at Peterborough in the late 1980s wearing original InterCity Swallow livery.

The British Rail Class 91 is a class of 140 mph, 6,300 hp electric locomotives ordered specifically for the East Coast Main Line modernisation and electrification programme of the late 1980s. The Class 91 locomotives were to replace the previous British Rail Class 43 (HST) in addition to other InterCity locomotives. The Class 43s were better known as InterCity 125 trains and the Class 91s were given the auxiliary name of InterCity 225 trains to indicate their status as a new version of the 125. The other end of the InterCity 225 is formed of a Driving Van Trailer. The fleet was built in two batches, the first 10, then the remaining 21, between 1988 and 1991 at BREL, Crewe under subcontract from GEC to work with Mark 4 coaches. At the time the Class 91s were branded by British Rail as the 'Electra'. Heavily derived from power cars of the ill-fated Advanced Passenger Train, internally there was very little to distinguish the two classes, apart from the omission of a tilting mechanism in the power car, a power supply to allow the Mark 4 Coaches to tilt was provided but was removed during their recent rebuild.

One initial idea was to use these locomotives on fast passenger services in the day, and on intermodal trains at night. These plans were dropped and freight workings left to the Class 90s.

In the early 1990's, after the Treasury failed to support funding for the IC250 British Rail examined the option of ordering a further set of Class 91s to operate on the West Coast Main Line. Limited funding meant that the procurement of the Class 465 EMU Networker stock was taken forward instead of these.

The asymmetric body style is streamlined at one end to allow high speed operation with the fixed sets of Mark 4 coaches in push-pull operation. An additional requirement of the design was that they could operate as normal locomotives. This led to a second cab being incorporated into the 'flat end'.[1]

The fleet is now operated under lease from HSBC Rail by GNER, owners of the ECML franchise post privatisation and underwent a refit between 2000 and 2003 to improve reliability. This has resulted in the renumbering of the fleet from 910XX to 911XX, with the exception of locomotive 91023, which had been involved in the rail crashes at Hatfield and Selby. The locomotive escaped with minor damage on both occasions, but it was renumbered to 91132 (instead of the expected 91123) to avoid suggestions that it had "bad luck".

The trainsets have earned the nicknames Stealth Bombers due to the deep blue colour of the livery.

Fleet Details

Current Number	Old Number	Name(s) Most recent first**	Dates	Livery	Operator	Status	Safety Test/ Lifted	Notes
Class 91/1	Class 91/0
91101	91001	City of London Swallow	2002-present 1991-1994	GNER Blue	GNER	Operational	May 2006
91102	91002	Durham Cathedral	2002-present	GNER Blue	GNER	Operational	Jan 2006
91103	91003	County of Lincolnshire The Scotsman	2001-present 1994-2000	GNER Blue	GNER	Operational
91104	91004	Grantham The Red Arrows	1999-present 1996-1999	GNER Blue	GNER	Operational
91105	91005	County Durham	2001-present	GNER Blue	GNER	Operational	June 2006
91106	91006	East Lothian	2001-present	GNER Blue	GNER	Operational	December 2005
91107	91007	Newark on Trent Ian Allen	2001-present 1992-1994	GNER Blue	GNER	Operational
91108	91008	City of Leeds Thomas Cook	2001-present 1997-2000	GNER Blue	GNER	Operational
91109	91009	Samaritans The Samaritans Saint Nicholas	2001-present 1998-2001 1993-1998	GNER Blue	GNER	Operational
91110	91010	David Livingstone Northern Rock	2001-present 1994-1998	GNER Blue	GNER	Operational
91111	91011	Terence Cuneo	2000-present	GNER Blue	GNER	Operational
91112	91012	County of Cambridgeshire	2002-present 2000-2001	GNER Blue	GNER	Operational	August 2006
91113	91013	County of North Yorkshire Sir Michael Faraday	2002-present 2000-2002 1993-1998	GNER Blue	GNER	Operational
91114	91014	St Mungo Cathedral	2000-present	GNER Blue	GNER	Operational
91115	91015	Holyrood	1999-present	GNER Blue	GNER	Operational
91116	91016	Strathclyde	2001-present	GNER Blue	GNER	Operational
91117	91017	Cancer Research UK Commonwealth Institute	2002-present 1990-1997	GNER Blue	GNER	Operational	April 2006
91118	91018	Bradford Film Festival Robert Louis Stevenson	2000-present 1993-1996	GNER Blue	GNER	Operational
91119	91019	County of Tyne and Wear Scottish Enterprise	2002-present 1992-1998	GNER Blue	GNER	Operational
91120	91020	Royal Armouries	2001-present (Vinyl) 1990-1996 (Cast)	GNER Blue	GNER	Operational	August 2006
91121	91021	Archbishop Thomas Cranmer	2000-present	GNER Blue	GNER	Operational	August 2006
91122	91022	Tam the Gun Double Trigger Robert Adley	2005-present 2002-2005 1993-1996	GNER Blue	GNER	Operational
91124	91024	Reverend W Awdry	2000-present	GNER Blue	GNER	Operational
91125	91025	Berwick upon Tweed BBC Radio 1 FM	2000-present 1990-1994	GNER Blue	GNER	Operational
91126	91026	York Minster	1999-present	GNER Blue	GNER	Operational
91127	91027	Edinburgh Castle Great North Run	2001-present 1990-1998	GNER Blue	GNER	Operational
91128	91028	Peterborough Cathedral Guide Dog	1999-present 1990-1993	GNER Blue	GNER	Operational
91129	91029	Queen Elizabeth II	1999-present (vinyl) 1990-1995 (Cast)	GNER Blue	GNER	Operational	December 2006	Recently underwent a safety inspection (December 2006)
91130	91030	City of Newcastle Palace of Holyroodhouse	2001-present 1994-1999	GNER Blue	GNER	Operational	May 2006
91131	91031	County of Northumberland Sir Henry Royce	2000-present 1990-1994	GNER Blue	GNER	Operational
91132	91023	City of Durham	2002-present	GNER Blue	GNER	Operational	Feb 2006	Involved in both Hatfield and Selby Rail Accidents. Renumbered 91132 (rather than 91123) after 2001 refurbishment.

**Not taking account of the period immediately after repainting into GNER colours in the late 1990s, when all locomotives were briefly nameless

• Class 91 fleet list on www.thejunction.org.uk

See also

• InterCity 225

GNER Class 91 at York railway station

It has become unusual to see the flat end cab of the Class 91. This example is at Crewe Works

External links

• Testing the Intercity 225/Class 91

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