The Class 66 locomotive is a development of the Class 59 and used both on British and European railway networks—where it is marketed as EMD Series 66.

History

United Kingdom

On the privatisation of British Rail's freight operations in 1996, English, Welsh and Scottish Railway (EWS), then a subsidiary of Wisconsin Central and since acquired by Canadian National, bought most of British Rail's freight operations. Many of the locomotives that EWS inherited were either at the end of their useful life or of doubtful reliability. EWS approached General Motors Electro-Motive Division (EMD), who offered their JT42CWR model developed from the Class 59. Initially classified as Class 61, this was subsequently given the "Class 66" designation in the British classification system. Two hundred and fifty were ordered and built in London, Ontario, Canada.

The Class 66 incorporated many ideas from North America and differed a lot from the Class 60, which had been recently built but to a more traditional layout.

In 1998, Freightliner placed an order for locomotives. They were followed by GB Railfreight, and then Direct Rail Services.

Although unpopular with many rail enthusiasts, due to their ubiquity and having caused the displacement of several older types of (mostly) British built locomotives, their high reliability has helped rail freight to remain competitive.

Europe

The Class 66 design has also been introduced to Europe where it is currently certified for operations in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, France, and Poland, with certification pending in the Czech Republic and Italy. They currently operate on routes between Sweden and Denmark and between Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands and Poland. As a result of its well-known British identity, EMD Europe markets the locomotive as "Series 66".

Due to the similarity between the word 'class' and the Dutch boy's name 'Klaas', locomotives of this class are nicknamed Klaas or in plural Klazen.

Current operations

English, Welsh and Scottish Railway

English, Welsh and Scottish Railway (EWS) was the first to order Class 66 locomotives, with the first of the two hundred and fifty locomotives shipped to Britain in mid-1998. The final locomotive entered traffic just two years later, in mid-2000. The EWS fleet includes five locomotives capable of banking heavy trains over the Lickey Incline—on these specific locomotives, the knuckle coupler has been modified to allow remote releasing from inside the cab, whilst in motion. It also includes fifteen locomotives fitted with RETB signaling equipment, for working in northern Scotland and RETB-fitted branchlines.

Freightliner

Freightliner followed EWS by initially ordering five new Class 66/5 locomotives, and have continued to order in small batches. As of summer 2007, the 66/5 fleet had reached 93 examples, numbered 66501-520/522-594, with 66521 having been withdrawn, and later scrapped after the 2001 crash at Great Heck.

In 2000, a new Class 66/6 sub-class was built, with a lower gear ratio, enabling heavier trains to be hauled, albeit at slower speed. There are presently twenty-five examples of this class, numbered 66601-625.

During 2004 the company also took receipt of the most recent Class 66/9 sub-class of the locomotive, which are a low-emission variant. All new locomotives for all companies are now of the low-emission "T2" type. The original two such locomotives remain as 66951/52.

FirstGBRF

FirstGBRf is the newest UK freight operator, now wholly owned by FirstGroup. They opted for new Class 66/7 locomotives, rather than buying second-hand from EWS or Freightliner, ordering seventeen examples. Currently, GBRf operate a fleet of twenty-seven locomotives, painted in their distinctive blue and orange livery. The locomotives are employed on infrastructure contracts with Network Rail and London Underground. GBRf also haul intermodal container trains from Felixstowe to the West Midlands and carry coal between Tyne Yard in the North-East and Drax power station.

During April 2006, five additional locomotives (numbered 66718-722) were delivered. These are of the low-emission kind, similar to the 66/9s in service with Freightliner. The livery differs slightly from the original seventeen, using a lighter blue and 'Metronet' branding on the sides. Their primary use was to work infrastructure trains for Metronet, but now for Metronet's succesor Transport for London. A further order for five more locomotives (66723-727) was delivered in early 2007. These locomotives are painted in a new livery of pink, white and blue, which is similar to First Groups corporate livery. In April 2008 First GBRf took delivery of another five locomotives (66728 - 732). They are painted again in the corporate First Group livery, and 66728 is expected to be named on Friday 18th April 2008 at March West TMD

Direct Rail Services

Direct Rail Services (DRS), a subsidiary of BNFL, is the latest company to opt for Class 66 locomotives. Previously, they had relied on a fleet of ageing second-hand Class 20, Class 33, Class 37 and Class 47 locomotives. In 2002, DRS ordered ten Class 66/4 locomotives from EMD. These were delivered in 2003, numbered 66401–410, and are employed on new Anglo-Scottish traffic, some with Stobart Rail. They are painted in a variation of DRS's blue livery. More locomotives have since been ordered, with ten (66411–420) delivered in 2006 and another ten (66421–430) delivered in late 2007. As of 2008, DRS had another four locomotives (66431–66434) on order.

Fastline

Fastline Freight, part of Jarvis PLC, which operates intermodal services between Doncaster and Birmingham International Railfreight Terminal (BIFT), and Thamesport, in North Kent, using refurbished Class 56 locomotives have ordered five Class 66/3 locomotives to operate a new coal flow from Hatfield Colliery The first three have arrived in the UK.

Future orders

Victa Westlink, who took over some of the assets of the beleaguered Fragonset Merlin Rail upon their collapse late in 2000, are believed to have placed an order for three locomotives.

Cab design problems

The lack of air conditioning, poor seating and noise levels led to the British Trade Union ASLEF to deem the locomotives unfit and unsafe, and in April 2007 proposed a ban on their members driving the locomotives through the Summer 2007 period. Keith Norman, ASLEF's general secretary described the cabs as "unhealthy, unsafe and unsatisfactory." Research also showed that in July 2006 when the weather was extremely hot, the number of times a driver passed a red signal increased. EWS was the first company to enter discussions and make amendments to a series of trial locomotives. This problem has also caused crewing problems for CargoNet with their CD66 variant of the class 66. There has been difficulty fitting air-conditioning systems within the smaller British loading gauge—Europe variants have had air-conditioning units placed on top of the locomotive's roof, above the driving cabins.

Fleet details

Subclass	No. built	No. range	Operators	Loco nos.	No. in traffic	Withdrawn / Remarks
66/0	250	66001-250	EWS	66001-250	UK:186 France:64	-
66/3	5	66301-305	Fastline	66301, 66303, 66304	5	66302 and 66303 awaiting delivery
66/4	10	66401-410	DRS	66401-410	10	DRS are removing these ten from traffic, and returning them to their ROSCO shortly.
	20	66411-430	DRS	66411-430	24	Low-emission locomotives. 4 on order for 2008 (66431-434).
66/5	81	66501-581	Freightliner	66501-520/522-581	80	66521 written off in the Great Heck rail crash.
	13	66582-599	Freightliner	66582-599	18	Low-emission locomotives.
66/6	22	66601-622	Freightliner	66601-622	22	-
	3	66623-625	Freightliner	66623-625	3	Low-emission locomotives.
66/7	17	66701-717	FirstGBRf	66701-717	17	-
	10	66718-732	FirstGBRf	66718-732	10	Low-emission locomotives.
66/9	2	66951-953	Freightliner	66951-953	3	Low-emission locomotives. 5 more on order for 2008 (66953-957).

DRS = Direct Rail Services
EWS = English, Welsh and Scottish Railway
FirstGBRf = GB Railfreight, recently renamed FirstGBRf

Gallery

References and Sources

References

Sources

• Fox, Peter; Hall, Peter & Pritchard, Robert British Railways Locomotives & coaching stock 2004. Sheffield: Platform 5.
• Electro-Motive Diesel, Inc. EMD: JT42CWRM Retrieved December 19 2006

See also

• EMD Series 66