Diesel Locomotives - British Rail Class 60: Books - History

British Rail Class 60 Locomotives

During the mid 1980s, in a drive for greater efficiency, British Rail required another heavy freight locomotive. The new Class 60 locomotive was to be constructed using lessons learned from the Classes 56 and 58.
Six organisations were invited to tender but only three did so. The contract was awarded to Brush Electrical Machines (today, Brush Traction, part of the Wabtec Rail Group) for a powerful 60mph Type 5 Co-Co design, which resulted in an order being placed for one hundred Class 60 diesel-electric locomotives.

Using original research from the National Archives, British Rail Class 60 Locomotives is a high illustrated guide that explores the commissioning of the Class 60s and their construction, testing and running.
It gives an in-depth technical appraisal of the class and details names, liveries, modifications and preservation and includes the 'Super 60' refurbishment and acquisition of ten Class 60s for Colas Rail UK, bringing the timeline to the present day.

Class 60s

The Class 60 was the last truly British-built diesel locomotive design. From 1990, the locomotive was gradually delivered, with 100 in total going to the Railfreight sectors of Metal, Coal, Construction and Petroleum. Their introduction did not go smoothly, however, and they took almost three years to enter service due to various teething troubles. Once these were ironed out, the class became reasonably reliable, and examples of other classes that were getting very tired at the time were progressively withdrawn.

Privatisation saw all the class being sold on to English, Welsh & Scottish Railways and, in 2004, the first Class 60 was withdrawn. Towards the end of the 2000s, almost all of the locos were put into store with a seemingly very bleak future. However, in the early 2010s, a small fleet of the locos received a thorough rebuilding so they could haul DB Schenker's heaviest trains, and eventually 21 locos were refurbished for them, another ten for Colas Rail and a further four for Devon & Cornwall Railways. This has meant that although the majority of the class is still presently rusting away and unlikely to run again, at least a number of examples will still be visible on the national network for a few more years to come.

Illustrated with over 190 photographs, this volume looks at the Class 60s from their early days through to the end of the 2010s.

Brush Type 5 - Class 60 Diesel Locomotives

The Class 60 diesel locomotives were built for heavy goods rains mainly used on Class 6 or 7 workings. Nicknamed 'Tugs' by rail enthusiasts, there were 100 of the class made, and these were split down into sectors such as coal, petroleum, metals and construction. But by the time the class entered service, the decals often didn't match the operating department.

With the cost of around £120 million to complete all 100 locomotives, the first of the class was sent to Derby for testing in June 1989, where a few teething problems were found. Having an eight-cylinder, 145-litre Mirlees Blackstone 8MB275T diesel traction engine and being one of the most fuel efficient engines available at the time, the class was introduced onto the mainline in 1990 and took over from several classes such as the 20, 26, 27, 31 and diesel electric 73.

Now run by two companies - DB Schenker and Colas Rail Freight - less than fifty are active and in working order. The Class 60s are still proving to be one of, if not the best diesel locomotives around for reliability and power.

Using his excellent collection of photographs, Ross Taylor explores this fascinating Class.