PROTOTYPE AC electric loco, Class 89 No. 89001, completed low-speed movement testing at Soho depot, Birmingham (RM Dec. p75) on April 22. It returned by rail to the AC Locomotive Group’s base at Barrow Hill on May 9.
During the testing of the armature convertors, a fault occurred which applied some unusual stresses to the traction motors in Group 1. This has caused a fault on traction motors one and three, which will need to be removed for further investigation.
The loco will be lifted and the traction motors removed for analysis.
Further work on returning this unique loco to main line service is on hold until the results of the analysis are known and the practicality of repair is understood.