Rolling Stock
PIP DUNN looks back at the passenger operations of the mixed traffic locomotives, and asks what could be next for trains which are still only a decade old?
The withdrawal in early December of TransPennine Express’s Class 68-hauled Nova 3 sets leaves a big hole in the fleet’s employment.
Direct Rail Services initially ordered 15 Class 68s (68001-015) from Vossloh in January 2012. This was followed by two further orders - one for ten locomotives (68016-025) in September 2014 and then for a further seven (68026-032) in July 2015, which was later extended to nine locomotives with 68033/034 added to the order.
Apart from the final two locomotives, which DRS owns outright, all were leased through Beacon Rail.
The final Class 68s arrived in July 2017. And despite suggestions that an order for a further 13 locomotives might be placed, that never came to pass - although another order with Stadler for ten Class 88 electro-diesels, which shared the same body, bogies and other common parts as a ‘68’, was placed in September 2013.
The Class 68s are mixed traffic locomotives, with electric train supply (ETS) to allow them to work with passenger stock. This was a clear indication that DRS was looking to passenger markets beyond the ETS Class 37s and ‘47s’ it already had in its fleet.
While the first order for Class 68s was made through Vossloh, when that company was acquired by Stadler in late 2015, later locomotives had Stadler worksplates. All were built in Valencia, at the same site that had previously built the 30 Class 67s for EWS in the late 1990s, under licence from General Motors’ EMD.
In December 2013, 68001 was unveiled, named Evolution, and moved to Velim in the Czech Republic for testing. In January 2014, 68002 Intrepid arrived in the UK and was taken to Crewe Gresty Bridge, where the fleet would be based. New facilities were built here to maintain the fleet. Unlike so many new types of rolling stock, the entry into traffic of the Class 68s was rapid, with initial main line testing starting in February 2014 between Crewe and Carlisle. In March 2014, 68002 was shown off to the press at Gresty Bridge.
The first use of a Class 68 on a passenger train was on September 23 2014 when, in connection with the Ryder Cup golf event, DRS ran additional trains for ScotRail. 68006 Daring worked the 0623 Glasgow Central-Gleneagles ‘golfex’, with 68005 Defiant on the rear and then working the 1829 return.
The next passenger working by a Class 68 was on December 6 2014, when 68014 worked the first charter train for the new locomotives when it handled a Newport-Leed
