GB buys ‘47s’
GB Railfreight buys three Class 47/7s from Colas Railfreight, as it expands its fleet to serve new contracts.
GB Railfreight has bought three Class 47/7s from Colas Railfreight - 47727 Rebecca, 47739 Robin of Templecombe 1938-2013 and 47749 City of Truro - after Colas decided to dispose of assets that are no longer part of its core business.
GBRf already hired one of the ‘47s’ for use on its Caledonian Sleeper contract, but the others were little used, especially after Colas lost a Washwood HeathBoston steel contract.
By December 14, 47727 was stored out of use, 47749 was at Polmadie for the Sleeper contract, and 47739 was at Washwood Heath.
The purchase of the three ‘47s’ follows GBRf’s acquisition of ten Class 66s from DB Cargo, as the company seeks to grow its fleet to serve new contracts.
The ‘47s’ will be used to service not only the CS deal, but also GBRf’s growing rail services business. It has won deals for stock moves that will be announced in due course.
The first ‘66s’ bought from DB Cargo ( RAIL 838) should enter traffic with GB Railfreight at the start of the year, sources have told RAIL. The locomotives (66008/016/ 046/058/081, 66132/141/184, 66238/250) are unlikely to have been renumbered before starting their new careers. In time, they will receive GBRf colours and be renumbered 66780-66789. As this issue of RAIL went to press in December, GBRf had taken ownership of the ‘66s’ and had begun moving them from Toton, with 66016/046/058 and 66238 arriving at GBRf’s Peterborough depot on December 17.
Two long-stored Class 92s are undergoing major overhauls at Wabtec Rail’s Brush Traction Loughborough facility, ahead of a return to traffic with GBRf.
The first to be treated is 92020, which has already been repainted into GBRf colours. The ‘92’ was stored in April 2001 by EWS, and was one of those delivered new to European Passenger Services (EPS).
The other ‘92’ on the comeback trail is 92006. It will also undergo an overhaul at Loughborough, but is likely to be outshopped in Caledonian Sleeper livery. This locomotive has been out of traffic since being withdrawn by EWS in February 2006. It was bought by GBRf in 2014, along with the other 15 Class 92s in the company’s portfolio.
It is planned that eventually 14 of the 16 electric locomotives will be operational, while the other two will be used for component recovery.
Operational so far are 92010/ 014/018/023/028/032/033/038/ 043/044, with 92006/020 undergoing overhaul and 92045/ 046 expected to follow. Two stored at Coquelles (92021 and 92040) are not expected to return to traffic. Like 92020, these have been out of traffic since April 2001.