Freight revolution
In April 1998, a revolution began in UK rail freight operation when the first Class 66 arrived in the country. PIP DUNN looks back at their 20 years in traffic
In April 1998, a revolution began in UK rail freight with the arrival of the first Class 66. RAIL examines their impact.
When GB Railfreight’s Brunswick green 66779 was named Evening
Star at the National Railway Museum at York on May 10 2016, the ceremony paid homage to the last newbuild Class 66 for the UK.
After 480 locomotives delivered to British rail freight companies, and another 200-plus to Europe and African markets, the production line was ended. The drive for lower emissions has finally called time for one of the most successful diesel locomotives ever to run in the UK. More could possibly be ordered for markets where emissions are not so stringent, but that seems unlikely.
The man responsible for the Class 66s coming to the UK is Ed Burkhardt. In February 1996, American railroad company Wisconsin Central, led by Burkhardt, took over all three of the UK’s regional-based shadow freight operations - Loadhaul, Transrail and Mainline Freight. The company set about rebranding these, along with the Rail Express Systems mail and parcels operations it had bought a couple months earlier, to English Welsh and Scottish Railway (EWS).
Wisconsin Central also acquired Railfreight Distribution in 1998, so the company ended up buying five of the six rail freight businesses. That hadn’t been the Government’s plan in its quest to create a competitive freight market!
Burkhardt, now the head man at EWS, revealed that one of the first actions of the new company would be to order new locomotives. After a tendering process, in May 1996 EWS placed the order with General Motors for 250 Class 66s. Delivery of the first locomotive was expected in late 1997.
The impact of the company’s arrival was instant. In his first UK interview with the UK press, with RAIL back in January 1996 ( RAIL 271), Burkhardt told Nigel Harris: “The Class 47 [the mainstay of the RES fleet] is a pretty poor locomotive. I’ve told the RES mechanical people that if they can maintain them, they can probably maintain any locomotive on the face of the Earth. They leak oil and coolant… it’s just a poor locomotive. We [ Wisconsin Central]
There was no real new technology involved in the ‘66s’ - they were a simple piece of kit based on tried and tested components.
would definitely plan new locomotives.”
Burkhardt added that while his company had traditionally bought second-hand locomotives and reconditioned them, for the UK he would look to buy new, as there was nothing on the second-hand market that he would want to buy.
“General Motors starts way ahead of the others [locomotive builders] in terms of pricing, reliability and general design,” he said.
Burkhardt ruled out buying Class 59s, as they were too old in terms of technological advancement. However, the new locomotives would use the same bodyshell as the ‘59s’ (15 of which had been delivered to the UK), thus speeding up the whole design (and thus delivery) process. There was no real new technology involved in the ‘66s’ - they were a simple piece of kit based on tried and tested components.
EWS had inherited a mixed and elderly fleet of ex-BR traction. It had Class 08/09 shunters, and a host of other main line locomotives of Classes 20, ‘31’, ‘33’, ‘37’, ‘47’, ‘56’, ‘58’, ‘60’, ‘73’, ‘86’, ‘87/1’, ‘90’ and ‘92’. It was even passed ownership of a long-withdrawn Class 25 and ‘45’! Many of the locomotives had already been withdrawn from traffic by their shadow freight owners, and would never run for their new owner.
Apart from the 100 Class 60s and the restricted and temperamental Class 92s (for which EWS did not have anything like a suitable workload), none of the fleet was especially new. And while some of the Type 5s and AC electric Class 90s had a potential future ahead of them, the others (with designs dating from the 1950s and 1960s) most definitely did not.
To put it in context, EWS inherited just over a thousand ex-BR main line locomotives, of which just over 800 were in traffic. The order for 250 Class 66s and 30 Class 67s was aimed at eliminating 650 of these (of various classes). This would be achieved in three ways: better reliability, reducing double heading, and better utilisation.
It was April 18 1998 when 66001 arrived at Immingham. After unloading, it was taken to Toton for initial tests. 66002 was left in the
US, undergoing extreme testing in Pueblo ( RAIL 335), but 66003-005 arrived at Newport Docks on August 26, just in time to star alongside 66001 at the EWS/ RAIL Toton open weekend on August 29/30.
On May 21, 66001 worked on the national network for the first time, running light from the Derby RTC to undertake braking trials between Toton and Tapton Junction.
On May 27, it hauled its first train - the 0930 Toton-Buxton with 19 empty vans (a job it repeated 24 hours later). And on June 2, it worked its first revenue-earning train when it piloted 58049 Littleton Colliery (which was shut down) on the 0400 Bentinck-Drakelow coal train. It was added to the train, which comprised 36 HAA hoppers, at Toton at 0430. The new dawn had begun.
What was remarkable was the speed of introduction. In less than six weeks from arrival, the new type had gained approval to work. And if this was rapid, then what followed was - by UK standards - even more remarkable.
The ‘66s’ soon gained a reputation for being delivered (all at Newport), literally being filled up with consumables (fuel, sand, water and the like), and then being put into traffic. New locomotives would usually be in traffic the day after they docked.
Although all allocated to Toton, some locomotives did not go to the depot and were instead sent in batches to start work. For example, a batch of locomotives went straight to Cornwall to displace Class 37s from china clay workings.
As the new locomotives arrived, usually in batches of about ten, EWS was able to withdraw at least the same number of older locomotives, and often more.
The Class 66s were a success from day one. They could simply be worked harder. By clever diagramming, a single ‘66’ could easily replace two ‘56s’ or ‘58s’, and three or four older and smaller locomotives such as ‘31s’, ‘33s’, ‘37s’ and ‘47s’. They were simple, but rugged and reliable.
And they soon gained a reputation for reliability - 97% availability was regularly reached, a figure that was a pipe dream for the older BR fleets which typically struggled for 70% to 80% availability.
They also broke new ground, reaching places where Type 5s had hitherto been unable to go. For example, in May 2000, the first ‘66s’ started operating on the West Highland Line to Fort William. For decades, this route had been a complete no-go area for anything heavier than a Class 37, but with their steering bogies, the ‘66s’ did not risk damaging the track.
They were then cleared for Thurso ( but not Wick), and in more recent times the class has even been cleared for Kyle of Lochalsh and Mallaig. They have been to Aberystwyth, and only the introduction of ERTMS to Pwllheli makes them unsuitable for that line.
The class has gained pretty much UK-wide clearance - just a few pockets here and there remain barred to the type. This has also allowed them to replace older locomotives.
Freightliner was the only one of the six freight businesses not bought by EWS. Instead, a management buyout secured this business, which started operating using a fleet of Class 47s, ‘86s’ and ‘90s’.
Its ‘47s’ were in especially poor condition. Initially, the company opted to re-engineer these as Class 57s, using reconditioned second-hand GM power units and ex-Class 56 alternators. But while an improvement, this really only papered over the cracks, and so in early 1999, in a deal with leasing company Porterbrook, it ordered its first five Class 66s. 66501, painted in the company’s new green and yellow livery, was delivered in July 1999.
The operator went on to order 131 locomotives, usually in small batches of five or ten. It included an order for the first re-geared ‘66/6s’ for heavier trainload freight work, and 66601 arrived in November 2000. This fleet was eventually extended to 25 locomotives.
GB Railfreight, a new entrant into the freight haulage market, ordered its first seven Class 66s in 2000, and 66701 (unveiled in blue and orange colours) was delivered in March 2001. The company went on to order more
locomotives, again in small batches as business grew. It now has 88 Class 66s on its books.
Direct Rail Services joined the party in 2003 with its first ten locomotives. Initially they were expected to be ‘66/8s’, but this was changed to ‘66/4s’, and 66401-405 arrived in October 2003 followed by 66406-410 the following month.
The final company to acquire new ‘66s’ was Fastline Freight, with five locomotives (66301305) delivered in June 2008. The company also hired 66434 from DRS, and it was repainted in the grey livery. Fastline collapsed in 2009, and its five locomotives were taken on by DRS, which still uses them today.
All Class 66s were initially leased. Angel Trains and Porterbrook were the principal leasers in the early days, but later HSBC, Beacon Rail and Macquarie bought locomotives for customers. The Angel locomotives acquired for EWS have since passed into the company’s outright ownership, and ten were recently sold to GBRf.
Because locomotives were leased, some have changed operators. Freightliner’s 66578-581, owned by Beacon, have been taken on by GBRf and are now 66738-741. 66573-577 became 66846-850 for Colas Railfreight, and 66401410 moved to GBRf as 66733-737/742-746 (the latter five have had spells with Advenza Freight and then Colas).
The Class 66s proved such a success that they soon attracted the attention of operators away from the UK. Whereas most other railways could have much bigger locomotives due to their more generous load gauges, the Class 66 was a proven piece of kit and available ‘off the shelf’.
The first overseas operator to take them was German operator HGK, which took delivery of two locomotives (DE61/62) in September 1999. Swedish operator TGOJ took two in August 2000.
Through 2001-03, another 28 locomotives were taken by German operators, while Norwegian company Cargonet took five locomotives in January 2003.
They have since been operated by the likes of Rush Rail, Heavy Haul Power, Trainsport AG, ACTS, Railion, DB Cargo, Rail4Chem, ERS Railways, DLC and Shortlines. Some were owned by Porterbrook and other leasing companies.
Freightliner set up its Polish operation with seven new locomotives (66001-007), and has since bolstered that fleet with locomotives moved from its UK operation.
EWS sent surplus Class 66s to France to its Euro Cargo Rail operation, and went on to order 60 more locomotives for this operation. So, why were the ‘66s’ so successful? In a nutshell, they delivered a reliability
under the operation of DB Schenker, which had just won the contract from DRS.
On June 28 2012, 66734 The Eco Express was heading northbound on the West Highland Line when it collided head-on with a boulder that had landed on the track following a landslide.
The boulder pushed the ‘66’ off the track, and the locomotive became perched precariously on the embankment which carries the railway high above Loch Treig. The damage to the ‘66’ was not as bad as the other two crashes, but the position of the locomotive made recovery all but impossible. Eventually Ferrybridge coal train, killing the driver. The locomotive was not repaired.
On January 4 2010, 66048 was hauling an Inverness-Mossend intermodal train in heavy snow. As the train approached Carrbridge, the brakes would not apply due to ice in the braking system and the locomotive failed to stop. It derailed on catch points and ended up coming to rest in trees. The crew were unharmed.
The ‘66’ had just been outshopped in Stobart livery and was working the first Stobart train
- for less routine maintenance cost - than anything previously seen on Britain’s railway.
The examination schedule was also extended. For example, a BR locomotive would have an ‘A-exam’ every 60 engine hours (every six days or so). A Class 66 had exams every 60 days! And they were worked harder, sometimes doing 18-20 hours work a day.
BR locomotives would usually be overhauled every four years or so. That varied depending on classes, but even so the Class 66s have never been stopped for what we would regard as a full strip-down and rebuild overhaul. They simply go on and on.
That’s not to say there hasn’t been the occasional problem. The Class 66s are deemed to be quite utilitarian inside, and there were issues with the unions over cab comfort which modifications were unable to address. And when 66064 was delivered, it was found to be sitting too high. It spent a few weeks at the dockside until this issue was rectified.
There have also been a few minor bumps and scrapes, while three Class 66s have been written off in the UK after major collisions.
Freightliner Heavy Haul’s 66521 was only two months old when it hit a train at Great Heck on February 28 2001. A southbound GNER train had derailed after hitting a car that had left the M62 and rolled down the embankment onto the East Coast Main Line. The DVT hit it and derailed the train into the path of 66521’s northbound Immingham-
The Class 66s have never been stopped for what we would regard as a full strip-down and rebuild overhaul. They simply go on and on.
the decision was taken that the only way to recover 66374 was to break it up on site and recover the smaller, more manageable sections of it.
At first, the majority of the differences in the fleet were cosmetic, and centred on the headlight clusters. 66401-420, 66538-581, 66607-622, 66708-727, 66951/952 all had bigger headlights which were very powerful. The original style of light clusters was fitted to later locomotives.
In 2004, Freightliner’s 66951/952 were the first to be built with modified lower emission engines, and this became the norm for most deliveries thereafter - namely 66301-305, 66411-434, 66582-599, 66623-625, 66752-779, 66953-957. What of the future for Class 66s in the UK? Emissions legislation has effectively ended the Class 66 production line, certainly for the UK. The bodyshell cannot easily accept a lower-emission engine to meet current standards, and so the last locomotives were the 28 built for GBRf in 2014-16, culminating in 66779 rolling off the production line in 2015.
The first locomotives are now 20 years old, but although DB Cargo has embarked on a repainting programme for its fleet, that is mostly for corporate branding reasons rather than necessity. Many locomotives are still in their original paintwork, a testimony to the quality of the paint applied to these vehicles two decades ago, although a few (especially some Freightliner locomotives) are now beginning to look a little tatty.
But there is no obvious replacement on the horizon. The General Electric Class 70s have hardly set the world alight, while the Stadler Class 68s (although undoubtedly cracking bits of kit) are deemed by some operators to be very expensive.
GBRf Managing Director John Smith swears by the ‘66s’, and is openly buying any that become available. He rates their simplicity and reliability, and even went so far as to order the final seven locomotives to beat the emissions deadline - even though (at the time) there wasn’t necessarily the work for them. That situation has since changed and GBRf has won more traffic, so much so that it has acquired ten more locomotives from DBC!
DRS is inviting bids for new locomotives, and so could dispense with its last 19 Class 66s. It had planned to do that when the 68s arrived, but winning more Network Rail infrastructure support work shelved that plan.
Freightliner’s dabble with the Class 70s has been less than successful, and ‘66s’ remain the core of its fleet. That said, it has been able to release locomotives for transfer to Poland, where 17 have been redeployed to join those seven bespoke Polish vehicles.
EWS (as was) also shifted 64 of its locomotives abroad to France, and another 16 to Poland. Given its disposal of 11 other locomotives, of the original fleet just 159 Class 66s remain in the UK with the company. Across all operators, 387 locomotives remain in use in the UK, equating to about four-fifths of the original build for the UK.