British Rail Class 68

The British Rail Class 68 is a diesel locomotive first appearing in 2014. It is capable of hauling both passenger and freight trains. It was made by  in Spain. There are two more locomotive types that are based on the Class 68: the Class 88 and .

 Background 
Before the Class 68s,  (DRS) had a small number of Class 20 locomotives to transport nuclear waste. DRS knew that these old diesels were increasingly become unworthy for their task. The company had Class 66 locomotives. These machines were deemed inefficient for DRS's needs. The Class 66s also did not meet emission standards set by the European Union at the time.

By 2009, DRS sought to purchase new locomotives. Companies such as Brush Traction, Bombardier Transportation and Siemens were considered. DRS turned down this direction. They wanted small number of locomotives.  suggested DRS to look to Valencia.

 of Valencia had a prototype for their EUROLight model. Some changes had to be made to the design to make the machine be able to run on British rails and to meet DRS's needs. This included raising the top speed from  to .

 Order and production 
In 2012,  (DRS) ordered 15 locomotives from Vossloh. These locomotives were built at Vossloh's factory in Valencia, Spain. The first units were delivered in 2014.

An option to have ten more locomotives was taken up in September 2014. An additional seven were ordered in 2015. At the end of 2015,  took over Vossloh's Valencia factory.

 Operations 
The Class 68s entered service with Direct Rail Services. The company rented out some of their locomotives to the following operators:

 Chiltern Railways
 TransPennine Express

 Direct Rail Services 
The Class 68s began trial during February 2014. The tests happened between Carlisle and Crewe. During mid-2014, DRS said that the locomotives were often used to handle the container traffic. The class was also used by Network Rail, who had been contracted to operate their trains. DRS also used the Class 68 to haul nuclear flask trains on a routine basis. According to the Rail Magazine, the locomotives proved to be highly effective.

 Chiltern Railways 
From December 2014, Chiltern Railways subleased six Class 68s from DRS. The railway picked locomotives 68010 to 68015. These replaced the Class 67s on services between London Marylebone and .

The Class 68s have been painted in Chiltern's silver Mainline livery. They also receive Association of American Railroads (AAR) push-pull equipment. This gave them the ability to work with Mark 3 coaches. Two of DRS's Class 68s, 68008 and 68009, were also given AAR push-pull equipment.

 Abellio ScotRail 
In April 2015,  borrowed two Class 68s. The company used them to pull Mark 2 coaches on the  during peak hours. By the end of May 2020, these services ended. This happened because the accessibility rule exception for the non-compliant Mark 2 coaches had expired. 

 TransPennine Express 
TransPennine Express rented 68019 to 68032 from DRS in August 2019. They were paired with five-coach rakes of , with a driving trailer at the other end. The sets were at first used on the  to Scarborough route. Once more coaches and staff were brought in, the Class 68s also worked on Manchester Airport to  services.

In August 2023, TransPennine Express announced that they were pulling the Class 68s and Mark 5A coaches from service. The change took effect with the December 2023 timetable update.

 Liveries 

 References 

 Other websites 


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