So if you guys haven't already heard the Class 56s are no longer in service and finished their last service earlier today. Unfortunately they're fate will be the scrapyard. However 1 or 2 might become a 69 or get preserved which could well be likely. It is a very sad time indeed but as they say nothing good lasts forever. Here is a couple of photos from YouTube and ones I took myself. They will be missed. . 56096 blasts through Salisbury from Eastleigh Arlington - 6th September 2022 by tft#6439 posted Oct 9, 2022 at 10:20 AM
They better be preserved including 001-030 which were made in the Iron Curtain Comecon Romania. Matching routes for them are NTP TVL and West Cornwall Local.
So sad when the scrapyard awaits. I always think of machines having a soul - probably stems from watching Thomas the tank engine as a kid.
They'll live on for a few years in their new guises as 69's thankfully, but personally I'm sad to see them go. Saw the last named at Crewe Open Works day but really had a soft spot for the earlier ones. They were still Iron Curtain days! As for preservation, there already is at least one! And an early Romanian one too driverwoods#1787 ! http://www.elrdiesel.info/fleet-56006.php
Are they being replaced by anything new? I always feel bad if something is just removed. Replacement is better than a removal.
They were solid machines and I will never forget the time I had with them back in the 80s. Very sad to see them go.
Thanks for the link and I can see more Romanian made trains arrive in the game with Riesa Dresden Dresden Chemnitz getting the DR BR119 U Boat
It's only the 56's operated by GBRF which are being withdrawn. Colas and DCR still have small fleets. The GBRF examples have been, or will be converted to Class 69 which involves a rebuild and installation of a General Motors engine. Seven are already in traffic, another nine to follow. Most of the Romanian examples have already been scrapped. Several have been preserved, but most ended up returned to the main line and/or scrapped.
The Class 56s were so good that Foster Yeoman bought their own locomotives rather than continuing to hire them and replaced eleven of them with four Class 59s. Four! At a test run of the first Class 59 a stone train brought to site by two 56s was hauled around by the new loco' with the 56s still coupled. I'm not saying they don't deserve their place in preservation but they weren't an unalloyed success.
Maybe the body shell does, after all that's been very successful, but the guts of the 47, 56 etc just needs binning
