A VINTAGE loco which left Crewe Heritage Centre this week is helping keep two working models of its kind on the tracks.

The Class 87 exhibit at the Vernon Way museum, Robert Burns, was hauled off temporarily to Freightliner's Basford Hall base on Monday morning where two of its traction motors are to be donated as spares to keep a Class 86 and a Class 87 running.

The working trains are owned by Locomotive Services Ltd, who struck a deal with Crewe Heritage Trust Ltd.

The trust says it has not taken the "decision lightly" and it is the "last resort to keep these working examples running for the foreseeable future".

The work will involve lifting the locomotive off its bogies, removing traction motors 2 and 3 and refitting them with two dud Class 87 motors to keep the bogie weight up and balanced.

The Class 87 was designed and built by BREL in the early 1970s. A total of thirty-six were built to work passenger services on the West Coast Main Line.