Network
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THE return to main line operation of a BR/Sulzer Class 45 ‘Peak’ for the first time in 17 years is moving closer, with just some small ‘niggles’ to be ironed out on the overhaul of 45118 Royal Artilleryman.
The locomotive will then have a repaint into BR blue, have its nameplates refitted, and then be returned to its owner -Locomotive Services Limited.
The overhaul has been carried out by Harry Needle Railroad Company at Barrow Hill. It has been fitted with the necessary Train Protection & Warning System (TPWS), On-Train Monitoring Recorder (OTMR) and Global Systems for Mobile Communications-Railway (GSMR) equipment needed to meet main line standards.
Already LSL has advertised a charter train to be hauled by 45118 – from Bristol Temple Meads to Chesterfield on July 27. This will take the locomotive along the classic BR-era cross-country North East/South West route regularly operated by Class 45s in the 1960s to 1980s.
It will be the first Class 45 on the main line since May 2007, when Nemesis Rail’s 45112 Royal Army Ordnance Corps worked a Minehead to Derby charter.
45112 had returned to main line use (under Fragonset Railways’ ownership) in July 2001, and had been the first Class 45 to work on the national network since 45106 in February 1989.
A later development of the Class 45 – Pete Water
