Rebuilt ‘73/9s’ take over all Caledonian Sleeper work
CALEDONIAN Sleeper is no longer using Class 67s on its trains from Edinburgh Waverley to the Highlands, because sufficient rebuilt Class 73/9s are now available for these duties.
The deal to hire the locomotives ended on June 30. The final three to be used were 67007/009/012, while additionally 67030 was in Scotland on other duties.
CS hires its traction from GB Railfreight. The Class 73/9s had been scheduled to start in April last year, when CS took over Sleeper operations from First ScotRail. However, they were delayed due to various complications with the rebuild, and so GBRf hired the ‘67s’ from DB as a stopgap. ScotRail had used the Class 67s prior to the end of the franchise.
GBRf will use Class 73s on trains to and from Fort William and Aberdeen, while a Class 66/73 combination will be used on the Inverness train. The Class 73 is provided on that train for electric train supply, as the ‘66’ is not so equipped. This is the first time a ‘66’ has been rostered for passenger work since the first examples arrived in 1998.
On July 4, GBRf was using 73966/967 on the Fort William train, 73968 was on the Aberdeen portion, and 73970 was working to Inverness with 66736 Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Additionally, 73969 and 73971 were at Wabtec Rail’s Brush Traction Loughborough facility, undergoing rectification and modifications respectively. The latter locomotive is the last of the batch of six for CS to be rebuilt, and has yet to leave Loughborough.
CS says that while its plan is to use a pair of Class 73/9s on the Inverness portion, it will be testing a single ‘73/9’ on the train to check its capabilities. GBRf believes the ‘73/9’ is capable of hauling the eight-coach portion over the Highland Main Line by itself.
A Class 73/9 is fitted with a 1,600hp MTU engine, rather than the 600hp English Electric power unit they were equipped with when built.