Refrigerated Rail wrapping for DRS 88010
To mark the collaboration between Direct Rail Services and supermarket chain Tesco in the rail transport of frozen food, 88010 has received new wraps. It is now branded ‘Refrigerated Rail…COOL Move’, but has lost its Aurora nameplates temporarily.
DRS Media Manager Andrew Butler told RAIL that 88010’s new guise promotes rail’s role in low-carbon logistics by taking freight traffic off the roads, as well as its success in moving refrigerated cargo.
On July 21, the locomotive was exhibited at Tilbury Container Terminal, from where Tesco’s daily refrigerated service to Coatbridge operates. Later that day, 88010 joined 88006 on the 2220 Tilbury Coatbridge refrigerated service as far as its home depot of Carlisle Kingmoor, where it was removed from the train and stabled.
Class 88s are DRS’s preferred traction for its Anglo-Scottish intermodal traffic that operates on electrified routes.
Although designated as a mixed traffic design with a maximum speed of 100mph, they can handle 1,400-tonne trains unassisted over the northern banks, whereas Class 90s used by other freight operators are worked in pairs. Class 92s no longer operate freight services north of Crewe.