HISTORY OF THE CLASS 66s

by ADRIAN BOOTH

It was the spring of 1998 when the magnificent Class 66 locomotives began to arrive in the UK, initially supplied to the order of EWS, although the type now has also found favour with Freightliner, GB Railfreight, and other European operators. There are now no less than 327 Class 66's in traffic in the UK, the type offering a new level of reliability and now working the majority of trainload freight duties on all but a handful of routes. With their stylish design and colourful liveries, the Class 66's have found fairly universal favour with railway enthusiasts, and are also very popular with their train crews (once initial teething problems with cab noise were rectified).

The Class 66 owes its existence to EWS. When this company was formed in the mid-1990's (after the purchase of Rail Express Systems, and the three BR trainload freight companies - Mainline, Loadhaul and Transrail) it sought to address the chronic availability problems of the aging fleet of locomotives that it inherited. EWS was aware that General Motors in Chicago (GM) had already supplied fifteen Class 59 locomotives to three operators in the UK and, for example, this type had proved immensely efficient and popular working stone trains between Somerset quarries and west London. EWS contacted GM (who therefore already had a suitable body design for the UK market) with a view to updating the popular Class 59 with the latest technology. The end result was an EWS order for no less than 250 new locomotives, designated Class 66, involving an outlay of some £375M, the biggest investment ever in one order for locomotives.

GM built all 250 of the locomotives at their works at Ontario, in south east Canada. To start with, just 66001 and 66002 were built, the frames being laid on 18th May 1997. On 23rd March 1998 number 66001 was officially handed over to the EWS Chairman at Ontario. It was then taken to Albany, New Jersey where, on 31st March 1998, it was loaded on board a ship for its voyage to Immingham. Upon arrival there it was towed by 56018 to the nearby TMD for inspection, with a ceremonial unveiling to the press on 20th April 1998. That night it moved to Toton TMD (hauled by 60016) for further inspection and staff training. Four days later it was displayed in Chester, then being taken on 27th April 1998 to the Railway Technical Centre at Derby for two weeks of tests. It was then sent back to Toton TMD and, on 21 May 1998, it made its first journey on Railtrack under its own power, undertaking brake tests between Toton and Chesterfield. It hauled its first train on 27th May 1998.

GM completed delivery of the order for Class 66's in an amazing timescale. The first, the aforementioned 66001, in a striking maroon and gold livery, was docked at Immingham (the only one to arrive there) on 18th April 1998, whilst the last eleven docked at Newport in South Wales on 18th June 2000, a highly impressive total delivery time of exactly 26 months for 250 locomotives. By comparison, BREL took 7½ years to deliver just 105 Class 56's, whilst the one hundred Class 60's took some four years to emerge from Brush. The Class 66's were quickly tested and all were initially allocated to Toton Depot before being set to work.

The Class 66 locomotives are of the Co-Co type with a cab at each end. Rated for 75mph operation, each has a GM 12N-710G3B-EC two-stroke engine, rated at 3,200hp at 900rpm. This is coupled to a GM AR8/CA6 main alternator, which powers six GM D43TR traction motors - one on each axle - developing a maximum tractive effort of 90,000lbf, and a continuous tractive effort of 57,000lbf, with a maximum speed of 75mph. This makes the Class 66 less powerful than a Class 60 locomotive, although it is a stronger performer than classes 47, 56, 57 and 58. The Class 66 locomotives can carry 6,550 litres of diesel fuel, giving them a range of upward of 1,200 miles between refuellings. A ready-to-run Class 66 weighs-in at 126 tonnes, and this means they have a route availability rating of 7. The Freightliner Class 66/5 locomotives are as per Class 66, with the exception that their maximum tractive effort is 105,080lbf (continuous rating 66,630lbf) and their maximum speed is a reduced 65mph.

When new, all 250 EWS Class 66s were allocated to Toton, although this was little more than a paper code to satisfy the TOPS computer, and each 66 could appear nationwide. However, in November 2000 EWS split its locomotives into regional pools and the Class 66s were allocated to six depots, Cardiff, Eastleigh, Immingham, Motherwell, Thornaby, and Toton. In reality they will still appear as and when they are needed, but the depot allocations helps in maintenance planning and the intention was that each locomotive would visit its home depot at least once every three months.

Such was the impact of the Class 66 that container operator Freightliner quickly got in on the act, initially ordering five of the type (designated Class 66/5) from GM , with 66501 docked at Newport on 17th July 1999. Subsequent orders have raised the Freightliner Class 66/5 total to 54 locomotives (numbered 66501-54) - all being painted in Freightliner's striking turquoise and yellow livery - whilst a further order was for six Class 66/6 locomotives that had a different gear ratio that made them suitable for heavier trainload work. These locomotives (numbered 66601-06) arrived at Newport Docks on 11th November 2000. A further order saw the delivery of numbers 66607-12. In addition to the initial container traffic, Freightliner subsequently won the contracts to work other traffic flows and, for example, 66/5s can now be seen on coal traffic and 66/6s on tanker trains.

In April 2000 GB Railfreight placed an order for locomotives with the same gearing as the Class 66/6s, with their fleet designated Class 66/7 and numbered 66701-12. Their livery is all-over blue with yellow ends, and the number and GBRf on the sides in yellow.

To complete the story, the success of the 66s attracted the interest of, initially, two European operators. A German operator ordered two locomotives to work traffic from Cologne to the Netherlands. These (numbered 9901-02) were painted red with a white band and arrow on the bodyside, and received approval for German operation in September 2000. The second operator was Swedish, and also ordered two locomotives - classified T66 and numbered 713 and 714. They were painted in lime green livery, and were delivered to Sweden in August 2000. The class is expected to thrive in Europe and GM stated that it hoped to sell between forty and fifty Class 66s in Europe during 2002. Indeed, examples can now also be found in Belgium, Holland and Norway.

Acknowledgement: this article is based upon a feature, written by Pip Dunn, which appeared early in 2001 in RAIL 401. The accompanying tables of loco data originally appeared in RAIL 401 and are copyright of RAIL. When contacted, Pip readily agreed to his material and loco tables being utilised on this web-site, and he and RAIL are sincerely thanked.