Yorkshire09876
Member
That makes more sense, thank you.
"Order > design > construction > testing > delivery" is a longer lead-time, than that for the scope of work done to the 69s.
New builds are likely to need overseas suppliers, who will be already be committing construction orders for other railways across other nations.
Even if the 69s are stop-gap, they have met GBRf's "need" far more quickly, than for a complete new build
mods note - split from this thread
GBRF confirms conversion of Class 56s to Class 69s
GBRF have today confirmed that they are going to convert sixteen class 56 loco prices into class 69s (chortle) by fitting them with EMD 12-710 engines! GB Railfreight (GBRf) has confirmed an order for 16 Class 69s that will be converted from Class 56s it bought last year. The locomotives will...

That's not going to be the main reason, which will be that new 66s are no longer allowed because they don't meet current emissions standards, and there isn't enough space in the bodyshell to meet those.
There is currently no off-the-shelf diesel loco design available which does meet the requirements, and it seems to be regarded as very challenging to do so with a power output comparable to the EMD 12-710, within the confines of the UK loading gauge - and trying to get a manufacturer to design a loco which is compliant with the latest standards, for a very small order, would probably mean a very high cost per loco - especially as diesel-only locos are falling out of favour now. The hybrid Classes 99 and 93 have smaller engines, physically as well as in power output, which make it more practical.
Re-powers of older locos are expected to meet the same emissions standards as new ones if possible, but if it's not possible then exemptions can be granted to allow meeting one of the earlier targets, so long as the new engine is less polluting than the old one. And that is what has been done with the Class 69 - they are as close to a Tier-3a compliant Class 66 as possible, using the Class 56 bodyshell, bogies, traction motors and brake gear, with the EMD 12-710 engine, of the same variant as the latter builds of Class 66. This reuse of the Class 56 makes them a re-power rather than a new loco, and the exemption will have been granted on the basis that it's not possible to re-power them to be compliant with the latest standards due to the confined space within the bodyshell.
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