NEWS ROUND-UP
DB CARGO
LONG-STOREDNo. 67017, taken out of service in the second week of December 2015, is likely to return to work soon after becoming the third and final
Class 67 to be outshopped in
Transport for Wales livery, joining classmates Nos. 67014 and 67025.
No. 60010 was reinstated to the WCBT on the last day of March, while Nos. 66139 and 66149were swapped from theWQAA storage pool to the operational WBAE earlier in the month.
COLAS RAIL
COLAS has stopped two Class 56s,
Nos. 56078 (at Grangemouth) and 56105 (at Cardiff Canton), reportedly to become spares donors to keep the remainder of the fleet serviceable.
DC RAIL/CAPPAGH
NOT good news for DC Rail at the start of March as it was forced to hire DB Cargo’s No. 60017 to cover for lack of availability of its own Class 60 fleet, with only No. 60056 active out of its four locomotives. The DBC ‘Tug’ was tasked with the 6Z38/09.40 ChaddesdenWillesden and subsequent 6Z40 to Angerstein on March 2, which was followed by the 6Z42/16.06 Scunthorpe Roxby Gullet-Willesden the following day, by which time No. 60028 had returned to traffic.
The Cappagh-liveried ‘Tug’ was back at Toton before a fortnight had passed for further repairs, resulting in a test run on the 6E02 empty steel coils to Boston piloting No. 60015 on the 13th, before returning to Toton once again for some more attention on the 24th behind
Nos. 67012 and 90020.
As for the other pair, No. 60029 is still at Toton and has yet to work a train for DCR, while No. 60046 was finally back at work at the end of the month.
FREIGHTLINER
THE first Class 59 for repainting in the Genessee& Wyoming-inspired orange and black livery has arrived at Toton in the formof No. 59206 John F. Yeoman Rail Pioneer.
LNER
TWO further Class 91s were taken out of service inMarch, reducing the active LNER fleet to 21 locomotives. Nos.
91113 and 91129were both stood down in the final week of themonth. They hitched a ride north and into store at Doncaster RMT on the 28th behind
No. 66776working a 5Z92/11.05 Bounds Green-Worksop stock move with 10-car Mk.4 set BN18. They joined No. 91104 at the former Railnet terminal, which had been dispatched north from Bounds Green on March 3 behind No. 66741, apparently destined for Crewe at some point in the future.
LOCOMOTIVE SERVICES
MARCH saw the debut of several examples of hired-in motive power now running under the LSL banner. The most exciting of these is ScotRail-liveried
No. 47712 Lady Diana Spencer, which has been undergoing work related to main line certification since it arrived at Crewe DMD last year. The 75mph-limited standby locowill be used to assist LSL’s existing fleet of Class 47s. Its first moves took place onMarch4with a pair of test runs to Chester and back with
No. 47805, while it made itsmain line passenger return on the 7th working the Shrewsbury-Crewe section of Saphos Trains ‘The White Rose’ railtour in both directions (see also Preservation News).
Just four days later onMarch 11, it was the turn of HNRC’s Class 20s Nos. 20096 and 20107 to commence revenue duties for LSL, the BR blue pair working a 5Z20 stock transfer from Crewe to Loram Derby comprised of a singleMk.3 sleeper.
RAIL OPERATIONS GROUP
ROG’s two Class 91s destined for Midland Main Line test train work, Nos. 91122 and 91128, were dragged to Crewe on March 5, the pair only making it as far as the ‘horse landing’ roads, where they remained at the end of the month.