Wyrleybart
Established Member
The real reason class 67s were built at all, was because back in the later 1990s the EWS board believed they needed something to replace the class 47s on mail and charter trains = ie something fast and with an electric train supply.Is there a reason why 67003 is being scrapped?
EWS wanted an EMD product with the proven EMD 710 engine and were originally going to order 280 JRT42CWRs (class 66s) of which 30 would have ETS and higher speed capabilites. Unfortunately, EWS and EMD didn't want to invest heavily in a "high speed" Co bogie design for that JT42CWR design, so compromised and built a UK sized version of the existing design.
I think it needs to be said that EWS wanted to squeeze every last drop of diesel fuel into the designs to avoid stopping for fuel so both the class 66 and 67 were designed to the maximum and this became an issue when it came to certification of the 67s in the UK. Not seen it corroborated anywhere but there was rumour that the fuel tanks had to be baffled and slghlty reduced to meet permissible axle loadings. Effectively the 67s were built to replace the RES 47/7s, but fell a little short in range.