GBRf disposes of spares donors ‘ED’ 73134 and ‘Grid’ 56106
News from GB Railfreight is usually oriented around new additions to the operator’s fleet, but September saw two longterm ‘Christmas trees’ consigned for scrap.
WITH all usable parts now removed,
No. 56106 has been removed from Leicester LIP for final disposal. It was one of the first inmates at the newly reactivated UK Rail Leasing depot, just north east of Leicester station, after moving there in December 2013, along with Nos. 56007, 56031, 56069 and 56081.
All five were acquired by GB Railfreight in June 2018 as raw materials for the Class 69 project. The unlucky Type 5 is the only member of the quintet not to have been reactivated, with the remainder all back in traffic either still as Class 56s (No. 56081) or Class 69s (Nos. 56007 – now 69005, 56031 – now 69001 and 56069 – now 69004).
Built at BREL Doncaster in April 1982, the Loadhaul-liveried ‘Grid’ was eventually taken out of UK service in January 2004, later joining the Fertis fleet in France for LGV construction work between May 2005 and June 2007. Sold to EMR for scrap in December 2011 it was ‘saved’ by UKRL in September 2013. Since 2017 its defining feature was its ‘open air’ cab design at the No.2 end, having donated the cab structure itself to No. 56115 in Hungary. The No.1 end cab was also removed before scrapping and will join the spares pool along with the bogies.
Unsurprisingly, ‘JB’ No. 73134 has also met the same fate. Delivered from
English Electric at Vulcan Foundry to Stewarts Lane in August 1966, it was stored after 33 years of service in April 1999 still carrying its Woking Homes 1885-1985 name. Sold to Fragonset in February 2003, along with Nos. 73103 and 73117, the InterCity Executiveliveried trio were moved to Meldon Quarry two months later.
No. 73134 was quickly reactivated
and later moved to the Weardale Railway and Barrow Hill, where it remained operational until around 2010.
It was moved to Nemesis Rail in August 2011 and was then acquired by GBRf as a donor for the Class 73/9 rebuild programme in March 2015. Sadly, while its former colleagues at Meldon, Nos. 73103 and 73117, were both outshopped as Caledonian Sleeper locos
Nos. 73970 and 73968 respectively,
No. 73134 was quickly stripped at Brush Traction and marooned minus bogies and on stands within months of its arrival at Loughborough. After being moved to HNRC’s storage facility at Worksop in December 2021, following the closure of Brush, it was passed on to CF Booth, Rotherham, on September 15 and was cut immediately.