I live right by the Great Western Mainline. On a daily basis, a plethora of Class 66's would belt it by carrying all manner of stuff, from intermodel freight to aggregates, trash to cars/vans and so on. I have to admit, I've grown fond of the 'sheds'. However, lately they seem to be sparse around here and been replaced by freightliner class 70s. He question is, Is this going to be the new norm or have the 66s been taken for maintenence?
I fail to understand what you're on about. Just checked Rail record for Acton T.C for the past few days and there have only been 66s and 59s. The 66s are likely to go out of service when the Class 99s get here in 2025.
Class 99??? *search engine* Ooooooooh! I wonder if they too will be based off of another loco like the 66 was...
And as far as i know they still run on the Swedish railroads maybe not as much as in the UK and yes some railroads companies in Sweden has class 66 classed as T66 instead
Every freight train I've seen between Paddington and Reading has been a 66 and nothing else. Now I see less 66s and a lot of 70s on the same route. So I wondered if the 66s are slowly being withdrawn and replaced or are they going for routine maintenance.
Do you know that the class 70 have 13 years ,so no why a class 70 Can replace class 66, but it's more than 10 years it's in service
The 70's have started appearing between Reading and Acton on Freightliner trains diverted from the Oxford route due to the closure of Nunham Viaduct. Having made six journeys between Slough and Paddington last week, every aggregate trains was formed of a DBS, Freightliner or GBRF 66, with the exception of a DCR Class 60 at West Drayton on Friday evening. Nevertheless, the oldest 66's are 25 years old now and thoughts will be turning to replacement, probably with both diesel and electric powerplants Mind you, some of the 59's that are also used are now 36 years old and still going strong.
Was at Newbury a few times over the last few weeks, all 66s, not seen or heard a 70 so maybe you're just "lucking out" on this one
Well, at least for GB Railfreight. No suggestion that DB Cargo/EWS or Freightliner are replacing theirs.
