[mjobling]

Originally Posted by Midland Compound

Didn't some of the early AC electrics (class 81-5) have two pantographs when built, but had one removed fairly early on in life ?

From http://www.igg.org.uk/gansg/00-app3-4/ap4-ele.htm:

Following a single prototype (E1000 based on the converted gas turbine engine 18100) there were five classes of contractor-built 1st generation loco designs that entered service. Originally designated types AL1 to AL5, they became Classes 81 to 85, all were broadly similar in appearance and known by enthusiasts as Growlers due to the noise of the original type of rectifiers used. Originally they were fitted with two pantographs but in later years (starting in the later 1960s) one was removed as [part of a major rebuild incorporating new solid state rectifiers (the empty roof space being used for a rack of gas cylinders) and all subsequent designs have only one fitted.