BR Blue 86/2s with their Flexicoil springs painted orange......

[D1511]

Hi there all.

I've been digesting Brian Webb & John Duncan's "AC Locomotives of British Rail" (David & Charles. 1979), and reading about the various ride quality and bogie issues of Classes AL1 to AL6, and in particular the tendency for early 86s to damage the track prior to fitting of the Flexicoil springs and additional dampers.

It triggered my memory about having seen said retrofitted springs being painted orange on some 86/2 examples in the BR Blue era, and particularly in the early '80s.

Can anyone shed any light on this practice, whether all members of the subclass were painted thus, and when it started/stopped?

I have 4 N gauge class 86/2 models from that era (216/235/241/245), and any info on these particular locos would be hugely appreciated.

 

[Sun Chariot]

My own recollections - as from 1980 to '84, my school faced onto the WCML - were seeing orange Flexicoils on the 86/2 when a) they were ex-works and b) it was early transitioning the 86 fleet into /2 sub-class. I had an OPC picture postcard of a blue 86/2 ex works, 1980 (IIRC) with the orange springs.
The dampers I recall seeing in a light grey.

By 1982-83, my photos and my grey cells suggest that 86/2s were outshopped with just black Flexicoil springs. I wonder if the orange paint was - during the transition period - a simple way for depot staff, or rosterers, to know locos fitted thus?

I have trawled t'interweb and I only find blue 86/2 examples already grimy...

@D1511, you mention 86235 in your list. Will Novelty be in its Rainhill 150 garb? My memories - and online pics - point to it having only black coils and dampers.

 

[317362]

Wasn't it a Stratford depot 'thing'?

 

[AndrewE]

Wasn't it a Stratford depot 'thing'?

I would have guessed it was because they had changed the spring design or spec and it was to identify the replacements until all had been done.

 

[43096]

Wasn't it a Stratford depot 'thing'?

I didn’t think Stratford touched the 86s until CEM was implemented in 1986/7? Before then all classified repairs were at Crewe Works.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Wasn't it a Stratford depot 'thing'?

From 1965 (AL6 introduction) to first half of the 1980s, 86s weren't allocated to the GE or maintained at Stratford. They were pure WCML.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 30 Jul 2025 ==

I would have guessed it was because they had changed the spring design or spec and it was to identify the replacements until all had been done.

That's my belief, yes (post 2)

 

[D1511]

Thanks all......I think it was quite a short lived thing in around 1981-82, so I assume it was to show the newly fitted locos clearly. I assume it was Crewe, but could have been WN I suppose. I know Stratford had a reputation for painting bits of locos in their own distinctive colours, but this was long before the days of 86s on GA......it was still boilered 37s and 47s back then!

@D1511, you mention 86235 in your list. Will Novelty be in its Rainhill 150 garb? My memories - and online pics - point to it having only black coils and dampers.

It is indeed in its Novelty livery, and my own pic shows it's springs in black. I also have a pic of 210, in ex works condition being towed to Edinburgh for it's naming ceremony in 1981, and its springs are black as well, suggesting it might not have been a Crewe thing after all.....

 

[Magdalia]

Class 86s started on Liverpool Street-Ipswich in 1985. The GE locos continued to be based at Willesden until at least 1989. If they got any maintenance on the GE during that period it was at Ilford not Stratford.

 

[Harpo]

If they got any maintenance on the GE during that period it was at Ilford not Stratford.

Yes. It was Ilford for GE maintenance until Crown Point took over circa 1991/2. (I was shown the tap changer mechanism inside the transformer tank at Ilford. Heath-Robinson’s estate might have been able to claim copyright on that mechanism!)

Main works was same as WCML 86s with a brief breakaway to Springburn which dipped reliability somewhat due to incomplete tasks such as radiator element cleaning.

 

[Helvellyn]

Pure speculation but could orange springs be a short-lived trial of a different spring, so they were coloured accordingly? I recall B4, B5 and BT10 carriage bogies sometimes used different coloured springs to differentiate specific characteristics.

 

[AndrewE]

Pure speculation but could orange springs be a short-lived trial of a different spring, so they were coloured accordingly? I recall B4, B5 and BT10 carriage bogies sometimes used different coloured springs to differentiate specific characteristics.

My money would be on an agreed mod, with the new colour to make it obvious which ones hadn't been done/still needed doing. After all, one coil spring looks very like another designed to fit in the same place...

 

[D7666]

My own recollections - as from 1980 to '84, my school faced onto the WCML - were seeing orange Flexicoils on the 86/2 when a) they were ex-works and b) it was early transitioning the 86 fleet into /2 sub-class. I had an OPC picture postcard of a blue 86/2 ex works, 1980 (IIRC) with the orange springs.
The dampers I recall seeing in a light grey.

86/2 date from earlier than that, they were all done by end 1975.
_

ISTR there were different coil spring rates but I am dragging up some unused grey cells here. This sort of thing used to be marked on cab doors by little white engraved plates with an experiment reference number.

From my 1980s WestMIdland times there were several of those, some big changes in a couple fo cases, that neer made it into spotting books.

For example the 86/2 were BZ motors and 86/0 AZ - but for years there was at least one 86/0 plated as having BZ motors, and another 86/0 got resilient wheeels way before they started on the 86/3 program.

Experimental first and then different flexicoils would be no surprise, although I don't recall cab door plates or orange paint.

One of the things they would probably have been tinkering with was flexicoil settings for APT power cars - fitting to an 86/2 would be for some mileage accumulation.

I used to have a record of all those important plates, all classes, but that gen was lost long ago.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Experimental first and then different flexicoils would be no surprise, although I don't recall cab door plates or orange paint.
One of the things they would probably have been tinkering with was flexicoil settings for APT power cars - fitting to an 86/2 would be for some mileage accumulation.

That's interesting and might well be what I saw 1980-81. Tne examples I noticed were very much a minority.