Angel Trains was established in April 1994 as a subsidiary of British Rail in preparation for the privatisation of British Rail. It was named Angel Trains after the London suburb in which British Rail's offices were located. In November 1995 it was sold to a consortium of Nomura Holdings, Babcock & Brown and former InterCity manager John Prideaux. In December 1997, Angel Trains was purchased by the Royal Bank of Scotland Group. The company expanded its leasing business, especially in Europe. A joint venture with Vossloh formed another leasing company Locomotion Capital in 2000. Additionally, through investment in its international branches Angel Trains Cargo and Angel Trains Europa it became one of the largest rolling stock leasing companies in Europe - specifically in terms of freight locomotives. In June 2008, Angel Trains was sold to a consortium of Babcock & Brown, AMP Capital, Arcus European Infrastructure Fund and Deutsche Bank. As part of the takeover, the international operations were split out into Angel Trains International that in January 2010, was renamed Alpha Trains. In 2015 AMP Capital Investors and PSP Investments increased their shareholdings to 55% and 30% after purchasing the stock owned by Arcus European Infrastructure Fund. As at June 2019, Angel Trains owned 4,421 vehicles. In July 2020, Riding Sumbeams formed a consortium with train and power companies to power AC rail networks with 100 percent renewable energy, and Angel Trains is one of them. Alex Byford, chief technology officer of Riding Sunbeams said in an article by Engineering & Technology, "Working in conjunction with Angel Trains, we have sourced an AC/DC bi-directional power electronic device, which forms part of a traction converter as is standard on an electric train powered by 25kV 50Hz overhead wires. We plan to re-use this device and a 25kV/LV transformer from a train and also re-purpose some DC-DC converters, which are common in the renewables industry – with some new software algorithms that we will develop. The main aim, however, is to prove that we can directly power both new and existing AC railways with direct-wire renewables with technology that is already at a high technology readiness level, so that we can progress with development of these sites in both the UK and abroad. Once we have completed our demonstrator project our next step will be to finalise the design and begin the product approval and safety methodology requirements for use on the operational railway."
Initial fleet
The fleet Angel Trains inherited from British Rail in 1994 comprised:
