Railway Herald
Class 81 No. 81004 is pictured stabled in Mossend Yard west of Motherwell on Saturday 3rd June 1978. New as AL1 No. E3005 in May 1960 the loco was allocated to AC Western Lines, which included work from Liverpool and Manchester to Crewe, major repairs being carried out by Crewe Electric Depot. Renumbered under TOPS as No. 81004 out of sequence due to the early withdrawl of No. E3002, the Class 81s were all transferred to Glasgow Shields Road Depot in 1975 after the WCML Electrification project had been completed. No. 81004 was transferred to Willesden in the late 1980s to assist in the replacement of the Class 83s then being used on empty coching stock duties between Euston Station and Wembley Carriage Sidings, a duty she performed until withdrawl during April 1990. It was a long trip to the scrapyard for No. 81004 as she was hauled back to Scotland and broken up by MC Metals at Glasgow Works in May 1992.
Bob Woolnough
