VIRGIN’S SHUNTERS
Between the two franchises, Virgin Trains uses 12 ex-br Class 08 diesel shunters, although it owns none and hires them from three suppliers. Alstom West Coast Traincare provides eight Class 08s for use at the depots it manages for Virgin West Coast; Wembley (London), Oxley (Wolverhampton), Edge Hill (Liverpool), Longsight (Manchester) and Polmadie (Glasgow). Wabtec provides two Class 08s for Virgin East Coast at Edinburgh Craigentinny, and Rail Support Services provides two for use at Bounds Green in North London. The Alstom fleet currently comprises 08451 M.A, Smith at Polmadie, 08454 at Edge Hill, 08611/696 at Wembley, 08617 Steve Purser at Oxley and 08721 Longsight TMD at Longsight, while 08790/887 are at Eastleigh Works undergoing overhaul. Over the last few years, there has been a policy to give the Alstom fleet a uniform look, and BR blue livery was chosen. Beforehand, they’d carried a variety of liveries such as Silverlink, GB Railfreight, Red Star Parcels and BR green while the ‘pitstop’ black livery with chequered flags was applied to 08454/617/887 in their early days with WCTC (along with 08788/824/934, which have since been sold). Two locomotives, 08611/617, spent time in Virgin red livery, albeit without logos. On the ECML, 08441/670 are at Bounds Green and 08472/596 at Craigentinny. The two London locomotives are in RSS dark grey livery with orange logos, while the Edinburgh locomotives are in Wabtec black. The RSS locomotives recently replaced Wabtec 08571/615. The locomotives are used within the confines of the depots only, and are not passed to run on the main line as they do not have TPWS and OTMR.