British Rail Class 66


The British Rail Class 66 is a type of six-axle diesel-electric freight locomotive developed in part from the, for use on UK railways. Since its introduction the class has been successful and has been sold to British and other European railway companies. In Continental Europe it is marketed as the EMD Class 66.

History

Background

On the privatisation of British Rail's freight operations in 1996, Wisconsin Central Transportation Systems under the control of Ed Burkhardt bought a number of the newly privatised rail freight companies: Transrail Freight, Mainline Freight, Loadhaul, and later, Railfreight Distribution and Rail Express Systems; thus controlling 93% of UK rail freight. After a public relations exercise involving the input of the general public, the company was named English Welsh & Scottish Railway.
EWS inherited a fleet of 1,600, mainly diesel, locomotives, with an average age of over 30 years; 300 had been cannibalised for spares. Typical of the fleet, the Class 47s needed a major overhaul every seven years, costing £400,000; yet had an average daily availability of less than 65% with only 16 days between major failures. To enable it to offer its stated lower pricing to customers, EWS needed to reduce operating costs and increase availability.

Order and specification

After reviewing the existing privately commissioned, which was more powerful, highly reliable and with lower operating costs, EWS approached its builder Electro-Motive Diesel, then a division of General Motors. EMD offered their JT42CWR model, which had the same loading gauge-passing bodyshell as the Class 59. The engine and traction motors were different models to enable higher speeds, and the Class 66s incorporated General Motors' version of a "self-steering bogie", designed to reduce track wear and increase adhesion on curves.
Placing what was termed as "the biggest British loco order since steam days", EWS placed an order for 250 units in May 1996 to be built at the EMD plant in London, Ontario, Canada at a cost of £375 million. Financed by Locomotion Capital, the first locomotives were ready in early 1998; the fastest delivery of an all-new locomotive type by GM. Initially, the locomotives were expected to be allocated the TOPS Class 61, the Class 66 designation was confirmed in July 1996.
The EMD 710 12-cylinder diesel engine is a development of a two-stroke engine used for over 20 years, whilst the EM2000 control equipment is the same as that used on the Iarnród Éireann 201 Class. EWS reduced the locomotive's time into operation through specifying cab systems laid out like the Class 59, whilst increasing availability with a fuel tank of capacity, compared to on a standard Class 47.

United Kingdom

The first locomotive shipped to the UK arrived at Immingham in June 1998, taken to Derby for testing. The second was taken to AAR's Pueblo Test Centre for endurance testing, before shipping to the UK. The locomotives then shipped at a rate of 11 per month into the UK via Newport Docks, until the order was completed in December 2001. After unloading, EWS engineers then simply took off the tarpaulin, unblocked the suspension, and finally as each was shipped with water and fuel, connected the batteries, before starting the engine and handing the locomotive into service. The ability to simply start up '66s' on the dockside and drive them under their own power to depots to enter service was nothing short of a revelation compared with many other BR locomotives, particularly the.
Each locomotive is specified and guaranteed to 95% availability, aiming for a minimum of 180 days mean time between failures. It is designed to cover 1.6 million km between major rebuilds, equivalent to 18 years' service, with each major rebuild costed at £200,000.
In 1998 Freightliner placed an order for locomotives. They were followed by GB Railfreight, and then Direct Rail Services. The last of more than 500 built over an 18-year period was No 66779, Evening Star, delivered to GB Railfreight in spring 2016.
Although sometimes unpopular with many rail enthusiasts, due to their ubiquity and having caused the displacement of several older types of British built locomotives, their high reliability has helped rail freight to remain competitive. Rail enthusiasts labelled the type "The Red Death" as they displaced many older types of locomotive whilst also acquiring the nicknames of "sheds" for the EWS locomotives with the Freightliner locomotives being called "Freds" as a portmanteau of Freightliner and Shed.

Continental Europe

The Class 66 design has also been introduced to Continental 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 in 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".

UK importation

By 2011, following an increase in UK rail traffic after the 2008 Global Economic Crisis, EMD were struggling to source critical components of the locomotive — specifically castings. The final units of the Class 66 were produced in the London, Ontario plant that year following an industrial dispute and the introduction of new EU crash and emissions regulations which culminated in the cessation of production.
Due to a reduction in European freight volumes and migration of several operators to electric traction using multi-current locomotives such as the Alstom Traxx and Siemens Eurosprinter, since mid-2012, a number of EMD Series 66 locomotives have been imported by GBRf and converted to UK type specifications. To date:
  • 2012: Three ex-Dutch locos, which have been numbered 66747-749. The former identities of these were DE6316, DE6313 and DE6315 respectively.
  • 2013: Two ex-German "Rush Rail" locomotives, which have been numbered 66750 and 66751. The former identities of these were DE6606 and DE6609 respectively
  • 2019: Three ex-Swedish locomotives, which have been numbered 66790-792. The former identities of these were T66403, T66404 and T66405 respectively.
  • 2024: Eleven locomotives from France, which have been numbered 66306-316.

    Emission compliance

Numbers 66752-779 were the last Class 66s ordered for service in Great Britain because of increasingly stringent emission regulations. 66779 was the last Class 66 ever to be built. Although the Class 66s meet stage 3a of the regulations, they do not meet stage 3b. Stage 3b would have required additional exhaust treatment equipment that could not easily be accommodated within the UK loading gauge. The same restrictions apply to the and. The restriction does not apply to second-hand locomotives, provided that they are imported from within the European Union. The purpose of the regulation was to put a cap on the total number of non-compliant locomotives in the EU.

Current operators

Class 66 operators in Great Britain are:
  • Colas Rail
  • DB Cargo UK
  • Direct Rail Services
  • Freightliner
  • GB Railfreight

    DB Cargo UK

bought out EWS. Their Class 66 fleet includes four 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 signalling equipment, for working in northern Scotland and RETB-fitted branchlines. A few DB Cargo UK Class 66s are now working in Europe as part of DB Cargo France and DB Cargo Polska.

GB Railfreight

initially leased seventeen Class 66/7 locomotives, before increasing its fleet to 32. During April 2006 five more low-emission locomotives were delivered, liveried for use on the Metronet/Transport for London contracts. A further order for five more locomotives was delivered in early 2007, and another five locomotives in April 2008. 66733-746 are formed of Class 66s from Direct Rail Services, Freightliner and Colas Rail. In 2011 66720 was painted in a special "Rainbow" livery. In June 2012, 66734 derailed at Loch Treig whilst working 6S45 North Blyth–Fort William and was consequently cut up on site and scrapped.
In September 2013, GB Railfreight announced a new order of a further 8 Class 66/7 locomotives from EMD, the first of the class to be built at EMD's Muncie, Indiana plant. On 2 February GBRf ordered a further 13 locomotives. These 21 locomotives are numbered 66752-772. Numbers 66752-756 were shipped from America and arrived at Newport Docks in July 2014. No. 66752 has been named The Hoosier State, a nickname for Indiana. A further seven locomotives were later added to the fleet, utilising six power units that had been in the UK, plus one recovered from the scrapped 66734. The presence of these power units in the UK circumvented European emission compliance regulations and permitted them to be exported to EMD Muncie for installation in further class 66 bodyshells.
The final Class 66 built, 66779, remained under a tarpaulin until 10 May 2016 when it was revealed at the NRM York with a special livery and nameplates to commemorate the fact it is the final Class 66 ever built for the British market. The locomotive has been painted in BR Lined Green and named Evening Star, in reference to BR Standard Class 9F 92220 Evening Star which was the last BR steam locomotive to be built. It was unveiled in a special ceremony inside the Great Hall at the National Railway Museum in York on 10 May 2016 before staying there opposite its namesake, No. 92220, for two weeks. At the same ceremony, the CEO of GBRf, John Smith, handed the curator of the National Railway Museum a document offering 66779 to the national collection when it is retired in about 40 years time.
In addition to those locomotives sourced from domestic operators, eight further locomotives have been obtained from European operators. A further five have been purchased from Heavy Haul Power International and will be transferred from Germany beginning in April 2021. The locos will go to Doncaster to be converted to UK specification.