Vintage Class 82 AC electric 82008 seen on ECS duties at Euston Station
<b>A view taken in the sepulchral gloom of the 1960s rebuilt Euston station</b> - taken at a long exposure to try and get some light - which shows Metropolitan-Vickers / Beyer, Peacock and Co. Class 82 (AL2) 82008 - one of just two survivors of the class at the time along with 82005. The pair of 'veteran' locos were reinstated to provide extra capacity at Euston for ECS duties, releasing front-line Class 85/86/87s from this menial duty! <b>I should think that the remodelled Euston must have been one of the most brutal and depressing of the 1960s station designs - second only to Birmingham New Street 😂</b>

<b>Locomotive history</b>
Constructed by Beyer Peacock in association with AEI (Metropolitan Vickers), entering BR service in 1961 as E3054. After 22 years of service, the entire fleet of Class 82s was placed into storage in 1982, and the majority of them were withdrawn the following year. 82005 and 82008 were subsequently reinstated for use on empty coaching stock workings between London Euston Station and Stonebridge Park Carriage Sidings, Willesden, and worked until 1987. 82008 survived into preservation and can now be found at Barrow Hill. - Info courtesy of <a href="/photos/12a_kingmoor_klickr/" rel="noreferrer nofollow">Kingmoor Klickr</a> 

<b>The British Rail Class 82</b> (AL2 under the pre-TOPS classification scheme) electric locomotives were designed by the British manufacturing interest Metropolitan-Vickers and produced by Beyer, Peacock and Company on behalf of British Rail (BR).

The locomotive was developed as a part of the programme of works to electrify the West Coast Main Line during the late 1950s and early 1960s. BR deliberately opted to procure multiple small batches of locomotives from a range of manufacturers. Having selected a proposal by the Metropolitan-Vickers division of the British manufacturing interest Associated Electrical Industries (AEI), the Class 82 would be produced. A total of ten locomotives were built by Beyer, Peacock and Company between 1960 and 1962.

Upon the type's introduction, all AL2 locomotives were allocated to Longsight depot. During 1966, the final locomotive to be built, E3055, was destroyed by fire at Maw Green, leading to its withdrawal. The first locomotive built, E3046, was also destroyed by fire while north of Bletchley, on 7 January 1971, and was similarly withdrawn early. Despite them being prone to catching fire :) the Class 82s proved to be a relatively reliable workhorse, particularly following a refurbishment programme during the 1970s that saw the replacement of their rectifiers. The fleet served in their original capacity for roughly twenty years, being mostly withdrawn during the early 1980s following the arrival of the British Rail Class 87s. 

Following the final retirement of the Class 82s in 1987, a single example 82008 was preserved. More on the Class 82s here: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_82" rel="noreferrer nofollow">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_82</a>

<b>Photos that were nearly lost to oblivion!</b>
The original slide was rescued from a box of 'duds' that I could never quite bring myself to throw away - now I am glad that I kept them ;)

Taken with a Zenith TTL SLR camera and standard lens. <b>Scanned from the original slide with a small amount of corrective digital restoration</b>

You can see a random selection of my railway photos here on Flickriver: <a href="http://www.flickriver.com/photos/themightyhood/random/" rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.flickriver.com/photos/themightyhood/random/</a>
82008 class82 acelectric al2 euston station london locomotive