Locomotion was originally a song about disabled people, although Andy had carried the phrase "Across every ocean, for the sake of locomotion" in his head for some time.

Locomotion was recorded in the last week during the Montserrat sessions before overdubbing the drums at ICP Studios, Brussels. The original song was combined with a steel drum rhythm that Paul had written the previous week and a bass line and piano that Gordian Troeller contributed. The track was mixed and the brass added at Wisselood, Holland. Tony Visconti did the brass arrangements.

There are three distinct variations for this release:

• Glossy card sleeve.
• Scratch competition on the reverse.
• "Manoeuvres" spelt as "Manoeuvers" on the sleeve.
• "Manoeuvres" spelt as "Manoeuvers" on the record label.

• Glossy card sleeve.
• No scratch competition on the reverse.
• "Manoeuvres" spelt as "Manoeuvers" on the sleeve.
• "Manoeuvres" spelt as "Manoeuvers" on the record label.

• Thin paper sleeve.
• "Manoeuvres" spelt correctly on the sleeve.
• "Manoeuvres" spelt correctly on the A side record label.
• "Manoeuvres" spelt as "Manoeuvers" on the B side.

Initial releases of this single featured a 'scratch' competition on the rear sleeve. If by scratching off a square it revealed the image of a train, by sending the whole sleeve to Virgin a random first prize winner would receive a CD player and 3 signed OMD CD's. All other winning entries received a signed copy of the Junk Culture album.

The fact that the winner had to send off the entire sleeve to claim their prize means that copies of the sleeve bearing the winning train logo are probably the rarest version of this release.

Gordian Troeller was OMD's manager at the time.