‘Grid’ moves to Longport

AFTER 20 years in preservation at Nottingham Heritage Railway, Class 56 No. 56097 – the first preserved ‘Grid’ – has been sold to an undisclosed new owner and has departed from its former home.

As reported in Heritage Railway issue 296, the owning group had offered the Grid for sale after being given notice that the locomotive had no future on the NHR, with the sale also listing a plethora of spares and two support vehicles.

Full details of the sale have not been disclosed, but a statement on the Grid 56097 Facebook page said that one fell through during the process, and that the group was leaving it to the new owners to announce acquisition of the locomotive.

No. 56097 departed Ruddington on November 3 and was reported as seen at Electro-Motive Diesel Ltd’s Longport depot the following morning. Longport is where Progress Rail has been converting Class 56 locomotives into Class 69s, though it remained unconfirmed as this edition went to press as to whether or not this was the future for this particular Grid.

Five other preservation groups and railways have benefited from the sale by way of acquiring the spares offered for sale.