History

In 1997, as part of an investigation into the replacement of Class 47 locomotives, Freightliner signed a contract with Brush Traction of Loughborough for the rebuilding of six Class 47 locomotives into Class 57s; involving the replacement of the original Sulzer power unit with a reconditioned General Motors unit brought over from the US. The Achilles heel of the 47s for many years - the main generator - was also replaced with a refurbished ex-Class 56 alternator. Minimal external changes took place and internally, the cab benefited from draught proofing following trials on 47270. These modifications were designed to extend the life of the locomotives by another 5-10 years.

Following the initial success of the first 6 locomotives, in early 1999, Freightliner extended the order to bring the total up to 12 locomotives with the first of the second batch being delivered only two months after the signing of the contract. The locomotives were delivered in a new style of livery - dubbed 'yellow and racing green' - part of the change in the company's corporate image away from the old, unreliable sub-sector of British Rail. A staff competition chose the names of the locos with the first being 'Freightliner Pioneer' and loco 007 named 'Freightliner Bond'.

The locos enjoyed a period of high reliability for a period after delivery, but since then the reliability has declined and the fleet is no longer considered the core of the intermodal fleet. Indeed, three locomotives were stored for a short while in late 2005. The locomotives were not considered successful enough to warrant a large scale order and Class 66s were ordered to replace the 47s. Class 66 delivery has displaced them from much of the high speed work and issues with components not replaced in the rebuild programme have arisen.

Current Duties

Although not a core part of the intermodal loco fleet, the 12 Class 57s still operate a substantial number of services, sharing duties with the fleet of Class 66s. Maintained under contract by EWS at Eastleigh depot, the locos spend much of the time working over the Southampton-Leeds/Crewe routes. There has been rumour of the locos moving to Freightliner Heavy Haul and being replaced in the Intermodal fleet by Class 66s but so far the rumours have stayed as just that.

History

After the original ETS Class 57 - 57601 - had undergone successful proving trials with First Great Western (FGW), thoughts turned to the replacement of the Virgin West Coast and FGW Class 47 locomotives used for 'Thunderbird' and sleeper work respectively. The 47's owner, Porterbrook Leasing, already had experience of Class 57 locomotives with Freightliner and talks ended in an initial batch of 16 locomotives being ordered.

Originally, it was envisaged that the locos would work in a common fleet for both Virgin Trains and FGW based at Central London depot, to be available to either operator, however it was later realised that this would not be practical so the order was officially split between the two companies, 12 for Virgin and 4 for FGW. A number of modifications needed to be made to the Virgin West Coast fleet of locomotives, most importantly that the engine needed to be more powerful so that when hauling a Pendolino EMU, the air conditioning and other features would still continue to function normally. This necessitated a new subclass - Class 57/3 was chosen.

The first loco was delivered in 2002 and went straight onto testing with Pendolino EMU's at the Asfordby Test Centre (being used at the time for commissioning of the new trains). Realisation that the locomotives would be used also for the weekend 'drags' on routes that were not electrified led to a startling modification. Gone was the flat, smooth ergonomic front ends and in came a Scharfenberg coupler to enable coupling to Pendolinos safely with a minimum of work on the track.

Converted from a mixture of Class 47/8 locomotives being returned by Virgin Cross Country and from stored Class 47s formerly used by Freightliner, the original total of 12 locomotives was later upped to 16 with an additional 4 being needed to finally eliminate Class 47s from standby duty on the West Coast. A 'imaginative' naming policy was devised for the fleet with each loco taking the name of a pilot from the hit TV series 'Thunderbirds' to which its number applies. For example, 57301 became 'Scott Tracy' who was the pilot of Thunderbird 1, 57302 became Virgil Tracy who was the pilot of Thunderbird 2, and so on.

Current Duties

The subclass is currently employed fully on Virgin 'Thunderbird' duty during the week and hauling Pendolino EMU's over non-electrified routes at weekends. Based at Longsight TMD in Manchester, locomotives are stationed at Carstairs, Preston, Carnforth, Oxley, Bletchley and Willesden in case of a train failure.

One locomotive is hired to Arriva Trains Wales daily to cover for unit shortages and this works a daily diagram between Holyhead and Manchester Piccadilly with 6 Mark 2 coaches.

History

Leasing company Porterbrook realised the potential for an ETS fitted variant of the Class 57 as replacements for Class 47/8s, the latter having been suffering from ever decreasing reliability so a trial locomotive was commissioned; converted from 47825 Thomas Telford at Brush Loughborough.

Internally, the locomotive was completely rewired and  fitted with a GM series 12-645-E3 engine and an ex-Class 56 alternator (as with the Freightliner batch). The locomotive has an ETS rating of 100 which, although higher than any current train needs, did prove that such a version is possible. A restyled front end was also included in the rebuild.

First Great Western took 57601 on lease during its trial testing period and it worked many of the day trains and sleeper trains in a common pool with the Class 47/8 fleet also with the company. The trial was a complete success and paved the way for ordering a batch of Class 57s with ETS to replace its Class 47 fleet on sleeper trains. This new batch was to be more powerful still and so, 57601 became non standard within the fleet and was sold to Carnforth-based West Coast Railway Company.

Current Duties

57601 is based at WCRC's Carnforth depot and is employed on mainly charter duties which it shares with the WCRC fleet of Class 47/8 locos.

History

An add-on batch to the Class 57/3 Virgin West Coast order, these 4 locos are identical apart from their external appearance (no scharfenberg couplers).

Current Duties

Currently employed as Thunderbird locos aswell as two locomotives operating the two sleeper trains, this small subclass is based at Laira TMD in Plymouth.