"A lot of people didn't realise it was a heritage repaint, such was the continued familiarity with original IC Class 86/2s in the early noughties."
86228 Vulcan Heritage at Birmingham International with the 16:21 Wolverhampton – Euston, on Friday 13th September 2002.
If ever you need an illustration of the indifference enthusiasts showed Virgin Trains' native electric locomotives in the late 1990s, just flick through a handful of period railway magazines. There was very little mention of the Virgin electric locos across the broader railway press of '97 to '99 – unless the locos switched pools, or failed and were rescued by freight traction. And finding an actual photo of a Virgin 86, 87 or 90 in those period mags is an extraordinary challenge. There just wasn’t the demand.