the british rail class 86 is a modern electric locomotive built during the 1960s, developed as a result of testing to replace the british rail classes 81, 82, 83, 84 and 85. one hundred of these locomotives were built from 1965-1966 by either english electric at vulcan foundry, newton-le-willows, or british rail (br) at their doncaster works. the class was built to haul trains on the then newly electrified west coast main line, from london euston, to birmingham, crewe, manchester piccadilly, liverpool and later preston and glasgow. they helped to replace steam locomotives, which were finally withdrawn by br in 1968. most have been scrapped after accidents and other uses. some were also exported to hungary and bulgaria. 3 have been preserved as of 2017.