the british rail class 87 is a type of electric locomotive built from 1973-75 by british rail engineering limited (brel). 36 of these locomotives were built to work passenger services over the west coast main line (wcml). they were the flagships of british rail's electric locomotive fleet until the late 1980s, when the class 90s started to come onstream. the privatisation of british rail saw all but one of the fleet transferred to virgin trains; they continued their duties until the advent of the new pendolino trains, when they were transferred to other operators or withdrawn. the last class 87 in uk mainline use was withdrawn from service on 31 december 2007. most have now been sold for reuse in bulgaria.