ETCS fitted to first Class 66
Work has commenced to install European Train Control System (ETCS) equipment to a Class 66, marking the beginning of fitment to freight locomotives in the UK as part of the cross-industry East Coast Digital Programme. DB Cargo UK 66039 has been delivered to Electro-Motive Diesel’s engineering workshop in Doncaster, where the ‘first-in-class’ fitment will take around six months to complete. If successful, it will create a blueprint to retrofit the in-cab signalling technology to the UK’s largest class of locomotive. DB Cargo UK Class 67, ‘60’ and ‘325’ examples are all then due to follow, so that the fleets can continue running on the southern section of the East Coast Main Line once it becomes a ‘no signals’ railway by the end of the decade.