I though I'd do a thread on the Class 60 heavy freight Co-Cos mainly because I put a couple of videos on them together for youtube These 3,100 horsepower sluggers were introduced from 1989 and eventually totalled 100 units. They were designed for heavy haul work and Brush Tractiion beat off competition from EMD with their Class 59 for the order One of the by products of their appearance during the splitting up of British Rail into first the Railfreight Sub sectors and then the subsequent privatised companies was that they soon carried a variety of colour schemes. The bodyshells, very similar to the class 92 electrics were built under sub contract by Procor in Wakefield and delivered to The Brush works at Loughborough by road where the Mirrlees engine and bogies were fitted 60 027 is ready for delivery when seen just inside the Falcon works gates as you can see it already carries its nameplates and all of the locos were eventually named The names were either peaks and mountains in the U.K or notable british personalities
As I said their principle role was heavy freight and the coal sub sector ones were soon to be seen hauling long rakes of 'MGR' coal wagons in the Derbyshire coal fields 60 059 heads south through Tapton junction at Chesterfield The above loco shows the Coal sub sector livery 60 094 carries the branding of the 'Construction' sub sector as it rattles through Chesterfield with a southbound Limestone hopper working bound for London 60 026 also head south with empty Lime hoppers although it carries the Petroleum herald The other big user of the 60s was the steel sector. Coal branded 60 059 brings a long train of M/T coil carriers north
As is always the case the locos immediately went to top of the list of desired power for railfan tours desopite not being fitted with train heating 60 014 was pressed into service 60 069 was not only on passenger stock but also wrong line working when I caught it After the privatisation of BR new liveries started to appear The black and orange 'Loadhaul' livery is barely visible under the snow here 60 025 seen at Peak Forest shows the livery to better effect on a rare warm day at this most exposed location
At Buxton efforts are made to keep the locos clean another colour scheme to brighten things up was the blue 'Mainline' scheme another scheme was the Transrail livery Peak Forest stabling point was always a good place to see a variety of paint schemes
This line up at Peak Forest shows the all enncompassing EWS red colour applied to these locos after Ed Burkhart started swallowing up all of the privatised companies as promised here are the links to the videos on youtube, hope you like them http://youtu.be/nFEOsp61VWI http://youtu.be/45j7zDLL8b8 cheers KEV
What do the SL, IM, TO, etc. with the numbers and names mean? My first thought was sectors, but the abbreviations don't seem to make sense. Depot assignments/maintenance bases?
They are depot codes. IM is Immingham TMD (traction maintenance depot) in north Lincolnshire. SL is Stewarts lane on the Southern region, TO is Toton in Nottinghamshire which is one of the biggest sheds on the system
Thanks Kev for the super description of one of my favourite UK locomotive types. But the 'tugs' do have a large fan base!
