Sunbird24
Member
The last I heard of, from the May issue of Railways Illustrated in an interview with Tony Bush of DRS, was: The next ten are not due in the country until later in the year. It will be two a month from October, says Tony, suggesting 68025 will land from Valencia in Spain some time around February 2016.
Two other paragraphs of interest in the same interview:
The 68s have a range of about 1,000 miles between fuelling, although 68002-005 currently have only 5,000-litre tanks while 68001/006-015 have 5,600-litre tanks. The others will be modified in due course when they have their next C-exams.
Regarding the Class 88 deliveries: It was meant to be January 2016, but deliveries will start after 68025 has arrived. The bodyshell of 88001 is already fabricated.
There may of course have been changes since then due to the additional order for 68026-32 and also 2 a month could just be an average, it depends upon the availability of suitable ships and their capacity, I assume it would be cheaper to put as many as possible on one ship but I imagine there will be size limitations. particularly at Workington.
As an afterthought, just wonder how much erecting shop space might be taken up with part-built AFRO Duals, if indeed they started any.
Two other paragraphs of interest in the same interview:
The 68s have a range of about 1,000 miles between fuelling, although 68002-005 currently have only 5,000-litre tanks while 68001/006-015 have 5,600-litre tanks. The others will be modified in due course when they have their next C-exams.
Regarding the Class 88 deliveries: It was meant to be January 2016, but deliveries will start after 68025 has arrived. The bodyshell of 88001 is already fabricated.
There may of course have been changes since then due to the additional order for 68026-32 and also 2 a month could just be an average, it depends upon the availability of suitable ships and their capacity, I assume it would be cheaper to put as many as possible on one ship but I imagine there will be size limitations. particularly at Workington.
As an afterthought, just wonder how much erecting shop space might be taken up with part-built AFRO Duals, if indeed they started any.
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