POWER BY THE HOUR
The wait is over as GBRf’s repowered No. 69001 worked under its own power for the first time at the Severn Valley Railway in February.
First ‘69' debuts at Severn Valley; Freightliner's Class 86/6s fleet stored at Crewe.
GB RAILFREIGHT’S No. 69001, the first of a new class of ten repowered and heavily reworked Class 56 locomotives, turned its first wheels in anger on February 15, when it worked a Kidderminster to Highley trip with ‘Shark’ brakevan No. DB 993876.
The EMD re-engined Type 5 had originally been scheduled to move to the Severn Valley Railway to commence testing in early February, but this was delayed while a few last-minute issues were resolved. This included its official renumbering (from No. 56031), which took place on the 9th, along with that of No. 69002 (the former No. 56311). No. 66702 did the honours on the
15th, hauling No. 69001 as the 0Z69 Longport (Stoke)-Kidderminster.
FIRST BREL ‘GRID’
No. 56031 was one of 16 Class 56s acquired from UK Rail Leasing in the summer of 2018, and is famously the first of the ‘Grids’ built at BREL Doncaster.
Rebuilt at Longport as No. 69001, it debuted on the SVR in a substantially revised condition from when it last worked a train. This was in 2006 while based at Ocquerre in France under the control of Fertis, as part of the construction of the LGV Est line.
Before its move to France, the loco was stored by EWS in the middle of 2002. After returning to Britain in December 2006, it spent periods in store at Toton and Crewe DMD before being sold to EMR Kingsbury in 2012 for scrap, later moving to Nemesis
Rail (Burton) in May 2013 and then joining UKRL in December 2013. Despite the involved nature of the rebuild programme – likely the most extensive ever undertaken on a British locomotive class – initial suggestions that new cabs would be installed have not come to pass. This means that the ‘69s’ retain much of the character of the donor locos, although they have lost the characteristic cab front multiple working equipment and horn grilles, the latter of which gave them their ‘Grid’ nickname.
The body shell of No. 56038 has completed its jolly at DB Cargo’s Stokeon-Trent wagon works for sandblasting and priming, the likely No. 69008 then returning to EMD Longport on February 24. This leaves the body shell of No. 56060 at the former Marcroft Engineering site, and No. 56065 still to make the first stage of its journey.