British Rail Class 67

The Class 67 locomotives are a class of Bo-Bo diesel electric mainline locomotives which were built for the English, Welsh and Scottish Railway between 1999 to 2000 by Alstom at Meinfesa in Valencia, Spain with drive components (engine and transmission) from General Motors Diesel.

EMD's designation for this locomotive type is JT 42HW-HS.

Design, testing and introduction
Thirty locomotives were ordered in a £45million contract split between Alstom and General Motors. for use by the English, Welsh and Scottish Railway (EWS) as Class 47 replacements for use on high-speed mail trains and passenger trains. The locomotives were obtained on a 15 year lease from Angel Trains.

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 67002 starting at Alstom's facility at La Sagra (Toledo, Spain) and running on the standard gauge Madrid-Toledo high-speed rail line, a top speed of 143 mph was obtained.

The first locomotive to be delivered was 67003, 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 110 mph and modifications to the bogies were required; locomotive 67023 was passed for 125 mph running in July 2001, all 30 units had been modified by June 2003.

Operations
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 ScotRail on the Caledonian Sleeper on non electrified lines north of Edinburgh, as Thunderbird rescue locomotives for failed trains on the East Coast Main Line, on some freight trains,and are hire for use on chartered tourist trains. Two units were assigned to, and received special liveries for use with the Royal Train from 2003, a third unit 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 Line infrastructure, Chiltern began running a 100 mph service from London to Birmingham branded Mainline using Class 67 powered sets.

In March 2012 Arriva Trains Wales began the lease of three Class 67s from DB Schenker to replace its Class 57s on its North-South Wales Premier Service.

Fleet details
As at January 2014 the status of the fleet was:

Liveries and namings
The locomotives were initially painted in EWS's maroon and yellow livery. In 2003 67005 and 67006 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 in February 2004 and February 2005, respectively.

In October 2004, 67029 was repainted silver to haul the EWS Company Train. On 12 October 2007, 67029 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, 67012–67015 were repainted in Wrexham & Shropshire's silver and grey livery. In 2008, these were named A Shropshire Lad (3 July), Dyfrbont Pontcysyllte (9 July), Thomas Telford (14 July) and David J Lloyd (16 May), respectively. These were joined by 67010 in March 2009.

In January 2010, 67018 was repainted into DB Schenker red livery with a maple leaf and named Keith Heller at the National Rail Museum. in honour of the Canadian-born former EWS and DB Schenker UK chairman.

In 2011, 67001–67003 were repainted blue, for use by Arriva Trains Wales.

In March 2012, 67026 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.