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Foreign Locomotives In Britain

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Greg Wetzel

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I was curious to know if a locomotive from another European country could work in Britain, such as on a heritage railway for example, without any conversions needing to be done.
 
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AM9

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The Nene Valley railway at Peterborough has a Danish and a Swedish steam loco, to which it can couple some of its continental profile coaches. Height wise the route is OK including the tunnel, but the platforms have been cut back to accommodate the wider gauge below solebar level. The UK MKI stock has extended footboards to bridge the now wider platform-train gap.
 

Mag_seven

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I remember seeing SNCF electric locos in Dollands Moor yard not long after the channel tunnel opened. I think they worked freight trains through the tunnel in the early days.
 

Ash Bridge

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The Eurocargo Rail class 66 fleet that operates in France used to work back to Toton depot for maintenance/overhauls periodically and could be seen on occasion working a UK service before returning, however I think someone on here mentioned all maintenance work now is currently performed in France.
 

sprinterguy

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There were French and German Pacific steam locos, plus a German 0-6-0T, at Carnforth Steamtown during the seventies and eighties when it was open as a visitor attraction. However they were not permitted to move beyond the confines of the yard due to being out of gauge, so are beyond the remit of this thread. There's a few photos (Not mine) and some more information here, though:
https://andrewstransport.smugmug.com/Germantrains/Carnforth-locos-Heilbronn/i-4BDNGdg
I remember seeing SNCF electric locos in Dollands Moor yard not long after the channel tunnel opened. I think they worked freight trains through the tunnel in the early days.
Yes, there were nine SNCF BB 22000 class electrics that worked through the Channel Tunnel before the class 92s were available - Though they never operated beyond Dollands Moor yard in the UK, of course.
 

Journeyman

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I was curious to know if a locomotive from another European country could work in Britain, such as on a heritage railway for example, without any conversions needing to be done.

HS1 is built to full European loading gauge, but I'm not sure it complies with full interoperability standards, and of course, the locos and stock that can travel through the tunnel are limited, but at least in theory, a wide range of European locos and stock can travel all the way to St. Pancras. A German ICE set visited a few years ago, but was loco-hauled over HS1 due to signaling incompatibility. HS1 has TVM430 signaling on it, but I think it will change over to ERTMS eventually.

It's probably worth mentioning the old Great Central Loading Gauge Myth here - you'll often here enthusiasts going nuts over the GC closure, because someone once stated in a book somewhere that it was built to "continental" loading gauge. It's generous by UK standards, but it was nowhere near big enough to take a modern European train. Of course, it was never connected to any other lines that could either!
 

30907

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A batch of the SECR L class 4-4-0s were built by Borsig in Berlin in 1914 IIRC - but of course to SECR gauge - and then there were the Waggon und Maschinenbau railbuses and sundry recent examples. But I don't think any of them really count. And the GWR had its de Glehn compound...
 

Taunton

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May I be the first to point out that the thread title states 'Britain'; Belfast is in the United Kingdom but is not in Great Britain!
First and last. Britain is the overall set of the islands. Great Britain is just the England/Wales/Scotland island. Inconsistent that "Great" only refers to a fraction of overall Britain, but there we are.

If the initial question had said "Great Britain" instead of "Britain" it would of course have been an incorrect reply.
 
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Ash Bridge

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Another one to mention although I'm not certain if it qualifies is the former GWR 18000 Gas Turbine Locomotive built I think in Switzerland by Brown Boveri. After BR finished with it the loco was sent to Austria and based at a testing station in Vienna, only to eventually return to England and a life in preservation. Is it not currently located at the GWS at Didcot as a static exhibit?
 

ChiefPlanner

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Both the Midland and Great Northern Railways imported some (Baldwin ?) , 2-6-O tender engines around 1900 , due to lack of capacity in workshops.
 

edwin_m

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First and last. Britain is the overall set of the islands. Great Britain just the England/Wales/Scotland island. Inconsistent that "Great" only refers to a fraction of overall Britain, but there we are.
I was always taught that "British Isles" was the correct term including all of Ireland. I think "Britain" is ambiguous but if being used with that meaning then the entire Irish fleet is foreign but operating in Britain!
 

d9009alycidon

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In the early days of the Bo'ness and Kinniel railway, a Swedish Loco (1313) and coaches was used in service, the tight clearance between the platform and the coach can be seen in this video
 

RichJF

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Eurotunnel has a handful of Krupp/Mak 6400 locos that work on HS1. They have hauled a TGV La Post to St Pancras & back!
The TGV Iris 320 test train has been over HS1 as part of the track measurement cycles too.

Of course we had the SNCF carriages on the Night Ferry (built by ANF Industrie) to fit UK loading gauge but they're carriages not locomotives.
 

Journeyman

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A batch of the SECR L class 4-4-0s were built by Borsig in Berlin in 1914 IIRC - but of course to SECR gauge - and then there were the Waggon und Maschinenbau railbuses and sundry recent examples. But I don't think any of them really count. And the GWR had its de Glehn compound...

I read the question as "can an overseas-spec loco operate in Britain?" rather than "can a UK-spec loco built overseas operate in Britain?" - there are, of course, loads of examples of the latter.
 

geoffk

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A batch of the SECR L class 4-4-0s were built by Borsig in Berlin in 1914 IIRC - but of course to SECR gauge - and then there were the Waggon und Maschinenbau railbuses and sundry recent examples. But I don't think any of them really count. And the GWR had its de Glehn compound...
The Barry Railway had five 0-6-2 tanks of class B1 built by Franco- Belge in 1900, because British builders could not offer a reasonable delivery time. Sharp Stewart supplied the drawings. For the same reason, several railways bought locomotives from US builders around the same time.
 
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Taunton

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Were the Alco Switchers at Port Talbot UK spec or straight imports of US spec locos?
They were standard US locos for size, but did need UK couplings and buffers adding, and vacuum brake gear. A strange purchase at the time in 1949 of extreme foreign exchange currency shortage.
 

AlbertBeale

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I was always taught that "British Isles" was the correct term including all of Ireland. I think "Britain" is ambiguous but if being used with that meaning then the entire Irish fleet is foreign but operating in Britain!
First and last. Britain is the overall set of the islands. Great Britain is just the England/Wales/Scotland island. Inconsistent that "Great" only refers to a fraction of overall Britain, but there we are.
If the initial question had said "Great Britain" instead of "Britain" it would of course have been an incorrect reply.

I always understood that "Great" Britain was nothing to do with defining the bigger of the two main islands in the "British Isles" (ie all these islands off NW Europe; though the term has political connotations which it might be best to avoid), rather, it's to distinguish it from Brittany. The original French language has Bretagne and Grand Bretagne, which has become Brittany and Great Britain in English.

"Britain" is a somewhat undefined term, being used both geographically and politically in a variety of ways - perhaps it's best not to use it in technical matters. In formal political terms, there's no ambiguity - the UK includes GB [E, W, S] and NI. Ireland as the island (geographical unit) includes both Ireland (the republic - the political unit) and NI.

NB the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands are all outside the UK, though are often referred to as "British islands" in the sense that they "come under the British crown" for international purposes, and are usually included when using the term "British Isles". The legal and administrative interactions between the UK and the IoM and the UK and the CI have lots of interesting differences (ie the IoM and the CI connections with the UK are not identical) ... but that's way off this thread's topic!
 

30907

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So, would the Ferrovie Nord Milano 200 0-4-0Ts be able to work in Britain without needing conversion?
If they fitted the loading gauge (likely, looking at a photo!) and had all the necessary safety equipment and so on, I see no reason why not. Presumably on some heritage line?
 

Fireless

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Yes and there are plenty of examples in the narrow gauge world.

The Welshpool and Llanfair Railway currently has No. 2 of the austrian Zillertalbahn as a visitor and plenty of other continental rolling stock in their home fleet (including a diesel built for Taiwan in Germany).

No. 87 of the Welsh Highland Railway was built in Belgium to a german and south african design to work in South Africa.
 

theageofthetra

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K & ES Railway has its Norwegian loco. Also isn't that diesel that used to work at the Ford factory a US design?
 

Ploughman

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On the NYMR we have a Ballast Regulator previously used in Holland built by the German firm Sollinger Hutte in 1984 in Uslar.
We acquired it from Grant Rail back in 2003
It sees frequent use on the NYMR profiling ballast pre and post tamping.
It has had some modification to the rear access steps on the west side to allow it to pass through Levisham and Goathland platforms but on the Down line only and then only with restrictions.
 
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GBRF 66747 to 66749 were former Dutch locos, while 66750 and 66751 used to work in Germany (one of them was hired to Freightliner PL in Poland).

GBRF recently got three locos from Sweden (to be numbered 66790 to 66792).

Düsseldorf 392 Tram operating at Summerlee Museum in Coatbridge came from Germany.
 
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