British Rail Class 67


The Class 67 locomotives are a class of Bo-Bo diesel-electric locomotives which were built for the English Welsh & Scottish Railway between 1999 and 2000 by Alstom at Meinfesa in Valencia, Spain with drive components from General Motors' Electro-Motive Division.
EMD's designation for this locomotive type is JT42HW-HS.

History

Design, testing and introduction

ordered thirty locomotives via leasing company Angel Trains in a £45million contract split between Alstom and Electro Motive Diesel, for use as Class 47 replacements for hauling high-speed Royal Mail trains and passenger trains. The locomotives were obtained on a 15-year lease from Angel Trains. At the end of the fifteen-year contract, ownership of the locomotives was transferred to DB Cargo UK.
The bodyshell is a monocoque load bearing Alstom design, the bogies are an "H" frame Alstom design, The engine, traction motors and control electronics are GM-EMD products, and the same as used in the British Rail Class 66. Unlike the Class 66, the traction motors are frame mounted rather than axle hung to reduce unsprung mass and the gear ratio is increased allowing higher speeds. The cab design has a central driving position.
The locomotives are able to supply electric head end power for passenger train heating and air-conditioning, and are equipped for buffer and screw coupling and also coupling via a buckeye coupler attached on a swing arm mount.
High speed running tests were undertaken with 67 002 starting at Alstom's facility at La Sagra and running on the standard gauge Madrid-Toledo high-speed rail line. A top speed of was obtained.
The first locomotive to be delivered was 67 003, which arrived in October 1999. Initially plans were for a rapid acceptance into service, but problems with the locomotives being slightly out of loading gauge caused delays. Acceptance trials began in December, and all 30 units had been delivered to the UK by early 2000.
The high axle load of the locomotive caused an initial speed restriction to and modifications to the bogies were required; locomotive 67023 was passed for running in July 2001, and all 30 units had been modified by June 2003.

Operations

DB Cargo UK

Initially the class were used primarily on mail trains. In June 2003 EWS lost the Royal Mail mail train contract, with services diminishing to complete cessation in March 2004.
The locomotives have since been used by First ScotRail on the Caledonian Sleeper on non-electrified lines north of Edinburgh. In April 2015, GB Railfreight commenced a contract to haul the Caledonian Sleeper with 67 004 repainted and renamed for use on the service. Class 67s ceased being used on the service, in June 2016, when replaced by GB Railfreight Class 73/9s, although they can still be occasionally seen on some portions of the Highland Sleeper to Inverness and Aberdeen.
Class 67s are also used as Thunderbird rescue locomotives, for failed trains on the East Coast Main Line, on some freight trains, and for use on chartered tourist trains. Two locomotives were assigned to, and received special liveries for use with the Royal Train from 2003, and a third had a commemorative jubilee livery applied for use with the Royal Train during the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II in 2012.
Five locomotives were also dedicated to Wrexham & Shropshire's services until it ceased operating in January 2011.
Chiltern Railways began using ex-Wrexham & Shropshire Class 67 hauled passenger sets in December 2010, in September 2011 after improvements to the Chiltern Main Line infrastructure, Chiltern began running a service from London to Birmingham branded Mainline using Class 67 powered sets. Chiltern Railways leased six Class 68s from December 2014, to replace Class 67s on its Chiltern Main Line services.
In March 2012, Arriva Trains Wales began the lease of three Class 67s from DB Schenker to replace its Class 57s on its Premier Service.

Colas Rail

In January 2017, DB sold 67 023 and 67 027 to Colas Rail, which were repainted at Toton TMD for use on Network Rail infrastructure monitoring trains.

Fleet

Summary

ClassNumber built OperatorNumberTOPS number range
Class 6730 DB Cargo UK2867 001-67 022, 67 024-67 026, 67 028-67 030
Class 6730 Colas Rail267 023, 67 027

Fleet List

Locomotives that do not currently carry their names are shown with the name in brackets.
Key:In serviceStoredScrapped

NumberNameOperatorLiveryStatusNotes-
67 001'DB Cargo UKArriva BlueIn service-
67 002'DB Cargo UKArriva BlueIn serviceInvolved in a serious crash at Lawrence Hill, Bristol in November 2000.-
67 003DB Cargo UKArriva BlueStoredStored October 2019-
67 004Cairn Gorm DB Cargo UKDB Cargo UK RedIn service-
67 005Queen's MessengerDB Cargo UKRoyal ClaretIn service-
67 006Royal SovereignDB Cargo UKRoyal ClaretIn service-
67 007DB Cargo UKEWS Maroon & GoldStoredStored October 2019-
67 008DB Cargo UKEWS Maroon & GoldIn service-
67 009DB Cargo UKEWS Maroon & GoldStoredStored October 2016-
67 010'DB Cargo UKDB Cargo UK RedIn service-
67 011DB Cargo UKEWS Maroon & GoldStoredStored June 2016-
67 012'DB Cargo UKWrexham & Shropshire SilverIn service-
67 013DB Cargo UKDB Cargo UK RedIn service-
67 014'DB Cargo UKTransport for Wales Red & WhiteIn service-
67 015'DB Cargo UKDB Cargo UK RedIn service-
67 016DB Cargo UKEWS Maroon & GoldIn service-
67 017ArrowDB Cargo UKTransport for Wales Red & WhiteIn service-
67 018Keith HellerDB Cargo UKDB Cargo UK Red with Maple LeafStoredStored March 2019-
67 019DB Cargo UKEWS Maroon & GoldStoredStored March 2015
67 020DB Cargo UKEWS Maroon & GoldIn service-
67 021DB Cargo UKBelmond British Pullman Brown & CreamIn service-
67 022DB Cargo UKEWS Maroon & GoldStoredStored June 2019-
67 023StellaColas RailColas Rail Yellow & OrangeIn service-
67 024DB Cargo UKBelmond British Pullman Brown & CreamIn service-
67 025'DB Cargo UKTransport for Wales Red & WhiteIn service-
67 026Diamond JubileeDB Cargo UKJubilee SilverStoredStored June 2016-
67 027'
Charlotte		Colas RailColas Rail Yellow & OrangeIn service-
67 028DB Cargo UKDB Cargo UK RedIn service-
67 029Royal DiamondDB Cargo UKDB Cargo UK SilverIn service-
67 030SchenkerDB Cargo UKEWS Maroon & GoldStoredStored October 2019-

Liveries and namings

The locomotives were initially painted in EWS's maroon and yellow livery. In 2003, 67 005 and 67 006 replaced the two previous Class 47 locomotives hauling the Royal Train. These were repainted in the Royal Claret colour and named Queen's Messenger and Royal Sovereign, respectively, in December 2000 and February 2005.
In October 2004, 67 029 was repainted silver, with full bodyside height EWS logos, to haul the EWS Company Train. On 12 October 2007, 67 029 was named Royal Diamond at Rugeley Trent Valley railway station, in honour of the 60th wedding anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.
In 2008, 67 012–67 015 were repainted in Wrexham & Shropshire's silver and grey livery. In 2008, these were named A Shropshire Lad, Dyfrbont Pontcysyllte, Thomas Telford and David J Lloyd, respectively. These were joined by 67 010 in March 2009, to add resilience to the sub-fleet. The sub-fleet was dispersed at the end of 2014, with locomotives receiving further repaints appropriate to their new roles.
In January 2010, 67 018 was repainted into DB Schenker red with a maple leaf and named Keith Heller at the National Railway Museum. in honour of the Canadian-born former EWS and DB Schenker UK chairman.
In 2011, 67 001–67 003 were repainted into Arriva Trains Wales blue livery, although without any company decals, for use on the daily Cardiff-Holyhead service.
In March 2012, 67 026 received a silver livery, union flag and Diamond Jubilee logo for use during the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II celebrations, being named Diamond Jubilee by Queen Elizabeth II on 23 March at London Victoria station.
In March 2015, 67 004 received the Caledonian 'Midnight Teal' livery and was named Cairn Gorm. This, along with similarly repainted 67 010, was used on the non-electrified parts of the Serco Caledonian Sleeper until the release of sufficient Class 73/9s for use by GB Railfreight. Both 67 004 and 67 010 have since been repainted into DB Cargo red livery, and are now both operational.
In June 2017 Colas Rail duo 67 023 and 67 027 received the names Stella and Charlotte, respectively, on nameplates carried centrally on the bodysides.
19/20 October 2017 saw 67 021 and 67 024 rolled out in Belmond British Pullman umber and cream livery, receiving Belmond British Pullman logos a few months later.
In October 2018 the Royal locomotives, 67 005 and 67 006 were repainted into a slightly revised version of the Royal claret livery.

Incidents

A serious crash occurred with 67 002 at Lawrence Hill on 1 November 2000, when a Royal Mail train passed two red signals and ran into the back of a coal train at around 3:30am. The mail train, hauled by 67 002 "Special Delivery" with 67 012 at the rear, was travelling at when the incident occurred. The locomotive climbed over the back of the coal train, coming to rest later on top of a coal wagon and against the A420 Church Road bridge. The driver of the mail train suffered a broken arm and cuts to the face and chest, but there were no other injuries. The incident was initially suspected to be caused by faulty brakes but was later found to be caused by misunderstanding and incorrect use of the locomotive's brake pipe isolation valve by railway staff.

Model Railways

In 2006 Hornby Railways launched its first version of the BR Class 67 in OO gauge range in a variety of liveries.