NEWS ROUND-UP

COLAS RAIL

THERE is good news for ‘Grid’ fans with the return to business of three of Colas’ popular BREL Type 5s – Nos. 56096, 56105 and 56113 – following attention at Nottingham Eastcroft. They are expected to be followed by Nos. 56087 and 56090, currently in store at

Cardiff Canton.

Also back in traffic is large logo

No. 37418, which has been reunited with its iconic An Comunn Gaidhealach nameplates that were first applied at a ceremony at Edinburgh Waverley in October 1986, later removed in March 1991 favour of the similarly difficult to spell name Pectinidae!

DIRECT RAIL SERVICES

THE first week of June saw the welcome return of No. 37407, which has not turned a wheel in anger since dragging a DVT from Norwich to

Crewe Gresty Bridge with No. 37402 in October 2019. For its 2020 debut it partnered with No. 37401 on June 3 to work a 6D43 Crewe Coal Sidings-Valley and 6K41 return nuclear flask trip.

Previously on hire to DRS from HNRC, Nos. 20311 and 20314 have returned to their owner, moving from the XHNC pool to HNRL in the process. Meanwhile, No. 66091 at Toton (on hire from DB Cargo) has seen its DRS livery completed with the addition of Compass logos. It departed the Nottinghamshire ‘super depot’ on

June 5 tucked in behind No. 68001 working a 6K97 Toton North Yard-Crewe Basford Hall engineers’ service.

GB RAILFREIGHT

ANOTHER operator where the only news is good news is GBRf, which returned nine locomotives to traffic in June, Nos. 60085, 66750, 66755, 66773, 66774, 66776, 66778, 73201 and 73213. Notably the two Class 73s were the final pair of ‘EDs’ to be reinstated after most of the fleet was stopped in May (see last issue). Nos. 66773, 66774 and 66776 all had a fun month, being initially reactivated from the reserve, in one case for as little as one day before being stored again, but happily ending June in service. Also temporarily stored during the period under review were Nos. 66775 and 66777.

LNER

TWO further Class 91s were removed from active duty in June, Nos. 91121 and 91126 joining the collection of locomotives at Doncaster RMT on the 27th. The debranded pair were moved north by No. 66767 along with a Mk.4 set as a 5Z91 from Bounds Green, with the coaches destined for Worksop. This leaves just 14 members of the 31 strong class in LNER ECML service, Nos. 91101, 91105-91107, 9110991111, 91114, 91115, 91119, 91124, 91125, 91127 and 91130.

LORAM RAIL

MICHAEL Owen’s Class 20s Nos. 20007 and 20205 have both been given ‘Loram Rail Operations’ branding ahead of taking up duties for the Derby-based engineering, track maintenance and testing company. It has also been reported that Loram is to hire Class 37s from Direct Rail Services in the near future.

EUROPHOENIX/RAIL OPERATIONS GROUP

NOT to be outdone by LSL (see lead story), ROG has leased HST power cars Nos. 43052, 43054 and 43066 (SBXL) from Porterbrook for OHLE testing on the Midland Main Line, the trio of former East Midlands Trains Class 43s being picked up from Long Marston on June 16 by No. 37884 for delivery to Leicester.

Finally, ROG’s hire of HNRC Class

20s No. 20118, 20132, 20311 and 20314 has come to an end, with the latter three all returning to their owner in May. No. 20118 was briefly used at

Ely Papworth for shunting during the first half of June, but this departed the Cambridgeshire storage location on

June 19 atop a 5M59 barrier vehicle trip to Leicester that had ROG’s No. 47815 tucked in behind the ‘Chopper’ and Europhoenix/ROG No. 37608 on the rear.