September 2019 RAIL EXPRESS 79
Gareth Bayer POWER BY THE HOUR
Final GRBf ’92’ outshopped
AFTERreceiving a£2million
refurbishment atWabtec’s Brush
Tractionsite inLoughborough,
No. 92006reentered service on
July2,having been out of use since
February 2006.
Previouslyone of the SNCF-branded
loco motivesand nameLouis Armand,
the locowasstored at Crewe IEMD until
2011 when itwassold to GBRf’s then
owner Europorte and movedtostorage
at CoquellesinFrance. Returningto
the UK in September 2014by road,
andnow under GBRfownership proper,
No. 92006 has been atLoughborough
ever since.
The ‘92’ is nowpainted in
Caledonian Sleeper teal and fitted
with special Dellner couplings. It
will be initiallyintroduced on the
CAFMk.5-operated ‘Lowlander’
sleeperroute between Euston and
Edinburgh/Glasgow beforemoving
to the ‘Highlander’ sleeper in due
course. Other modifications include
additional safetymeasures, improved
communication equipment and
powerupgrades.
No. 66704wastaskedwith
dragging No. 92006, nowinthe GBSL
pool, to Crewe (as a0Z81 move), where
it reconnected to theoverhead supply
forthe first move under itsownpower,
the short trip to the Down Holding
sidingreadyfor further testing.
On July3itwas outoni ts ownfor
aride to Staffordand Preston, while
notablyonJuly10itwas partnered with
its CS teal-liveried colleague No. 92033
forarun to Staffordand back. With
testing andafew minor issues
attended to at Crewe IEMD, it headed
to Wemble yonJuly26asan0Z92
light engine move behind No. 92028,
the latter alsoreturningtowork after
severalmonths out of service.SAMSUNG S7:GBRf’srefurbished sleeper loco No. 92006 onatest run at Stafford
on July3,r unning from Crewe to Cr ewevia Staffordand Preston.James WindowsCAMERA PHONE PHOTOGRAPHY
Thinkyoucan do better? Ifyou’vetaken something newsworthy, artistic ortechnically
interesting onamobile device, send it in [email protected] we’ll pay
our normalrates forany used in the magazine.Class 70 trialled on
Somerset stone trains
OVERNIGHT on July18/19 saw
Freightliner’s No. 70003 haula‘jumbo’
aggregates train from Merehead
(Somerset) toActon (WestLondon) that
weighed morethan 4,600 tonnes, which
is claimed to be the current heaviest to
run in Britain.
The trialwasinpreparationfor
Freightliner takingoverthe bulk
haulageserviceforMendipRail,the
joint ventur ebetween Hanson UK and
Aggregate Industries, in November.
Currentlythese trains areoperated
by DB Cargousing Class 59 power, but
once the ‘green team’ takesoverare
expect ed to seeamixtureofClass 70s
and‘66/6s’.
The trial run saw46wagons loaded
No. 70003 at Merehead late on July
18 ahead of its 4600-tonne trial run to
Acton.Freightlinerto 100 tonnes each leave Merehead as
the 7A91/22.50 toActon. It left some
20 minutes late but arrivalwas30
minutes ahead of booked time at 02.25.
No. 70003wasprepared at
SouthamptonMaritime on July18
before running light engine to Merehead
around lunchtime, then making a
round trip crew familiarisation run to
Westbury and back. After the trial itran
backlight engine to Southampton on
the 19th as the 04.28 fromActon, then
returned to its usual intermodal duties
late rthat day.
‘Jumbo’ trains bring combined loads
of stone toActon foronwardworking
as portions tovarious locations in
London and the SouthEast.DB CARGO
FIVE moreClass 60s (Nos. 60006, 60050,
60060, 60081 and 60086, all located at
Toton) have been offered forsale by DB.
Notablycelebrity Corus silver-liveried
No. 60006 (in storesince November
2004) and No. 60050 (in storesince June
2006) have both been put outfortender
twicebefore, in 2010 and 2016, while
GWR green No. 60081–the mostfamous
member of the Class 60 fleet–has also
been previouslyoffered in 2010. The
closing dateforbidswas August 1.We
hope theyfind good homes.
Nine locomotives movedbetween
the stored and operational pools during
the period underreview, with Nos.6610 8,
90035, 90039 and 90040 all being stored
WQAA, while Nos. 60001 (toWCAT),
60020 (toWCAT), 66070 (to WBAT),
90019 (to WEDC) and 90029 (to WEDC)
were all back in service in July. Notably,
the latter three locomotives had all been
stored in June.DC RAIL/CAPPAGH
GBRF’S Class 60 No. 60096Impetushas
been hired to DCRforcrewtraining ahead
of the first of this operator’s ‘Super 60s’
arriving later thisyear.Movinglight
engine from Doncaster to Willesden on
July3(0Z60), itwasreported in service
the following dayona6Z60/17.14to
Chaddesden (Derby) conveying empty
JRA boxwagonsreadytowork a6Z61
service toMaltbyColliery the next
day, the first train to visit this sitefor
someyears. Aweek later the ‘Tug’was
recorded on driver training duties in
SouthandWest London readyfor anew
service to Angerstein Wharf,before
running light toToton on July16.EUROPHOENIX
SCRA PPING of Class 37s has beenrare
in recent years, with on ly ahandful cut
since the hugeculls of the 2000s. Initially
the futurelooked promisingfor
No. 37188, having been acquiredby Colas
Rail in 2015forareturn to the main line
after languishing atPeak Rail.Bodyw orkrepairs began at Barrow Hill toreturn
the former EastfieldfavouriteJimmy
Shandto workingcondition, but this
wascancelled and the locomotivesold
to Europhoenix, who movedittoUKRL’s
Leicester depot in January of thisyear.
Having been stripped of parts it has now
been broken up on site at the end of July.GB RAILFREIGHT
THE second of theSwedis hClass 66s
that GBRf acquired from BeaconRail
has arrived in the UK in theform of No.
66791, theformer No. T66404. Offloaded
at Immingham DocksonJ uly18, after
being shipped from Gothenburg, itwas
movedtoDoncasterRoberts Road on
the 23rdbyNo. 66749(as 0Z92). It
eventual ly re ached EMDLongport on
July29via Peterborough (as 0M22) and
Hams Hall (as 0M70), the final leg being
behind No. 66786, which is another
‘second-hand’ member of the GBRf fleet
(beingex-DB/EWS No. 66141).LOCOMOTIVE SERVICESLTD
THEREwasgood newsforNo. 37667,
which departedLoramatDerby on July4
by road afteralengthyrepai r, having
been on site since the middle of June- Theformer DirectRail Services
locomotive, which hasswapped its
compass liveryforundercoat grey,was
returned toLSL’sCrewe Diesel Depot.
WEST COASTRAILWAYS
THE focus on preserved and heritage
main line Class 47 fleet in last month’s
Rail Expressmentioned that the D05
Preser vation Group’s No. 47828 had
movedtoCarnforth to takeupduties
with WCRonApril17. The InterCity
Swallow-liveried ‘Brush 4’ finallyworked
its first train on July11, doubling up with
AWCA pool colleague No. 47832 at the
head ofa1Z25/07.58Carnforth toYork
‘Scarborough Spa Express’,working via
Prestonand CopyPit/CalderValley.
‘Jubilee’ 4-6-0 steam loco No. 45699
Galateathen worked the train onward
to Scarborough.NEWSROUND-UP