A HISTORIC locomotive is set to be cosmetically restored by a team of a staff and volunteers at the region’s most popular railway museum.

The group from the National Railway Museum (NRM) conservation workshop at Locomotion: The National Railway Museum at Shildon, will carry out the work on the British Rail Class 71, supported by Locomotionmodels.com

The British Rail Class 71 was an electric locomotive used on the southern region of British railways. In line with British Transport Commission’s modernisation plan, 24 of these electric locomotives were built at the British Rail Doncaster Works in 1958, destined for use on the main lines of the Kent coast.

The Class 71 locomotives were classified as a mixed traffic locomotive, and proved to be equally suited to haul heavy freight or express passenger trains.

They were withdrawn from service on December 31, 1977.

One of the class – E5001 – was preserved and became part of the National Collection and in January it will be cosmetically restored to its preserved livery

A new NRM Exclusive model of E5001produced by Hornby as part of the National Collection in miniature series, is now available.

Visitors to Locomotion: The National Railway Museum at Shildon will be able to watch the cosmetic restoration of E5001 from the viewing area alongside the NRM conservation workshop.