(HD Blu-Ray) The Class 66 at work in the UK and Europe (1999 - 2013)
Description
Run-time 1h 42 mins
The programme looks at the class at work in the UK in 1999 & 2000, including a section on some of the EWS examples sent to France. We move to mainland Europe to see a variety of locos at work from 2003 to 2013. Includes locos working for EWSI, Shortlines, HGK, DLC, ERS, HHPI, Crossrail Benelux, VFLI and DB Schenker to name but a few.
It all began on the 18th of April 1998 when the first of 250 locomotives ordered by English Welsh and Scottish Railway was unloaded on UK shores, it marked the beginning of a series of deliveries that spanned right across the European mainland, culminating in a build total exceeding 600 examples.
This programme looks at the Class 66 at work in their early days in the UK as well as documenting the spread of the class across Europe from France, Belgium, The Netherlands to Germany. The DVD brings together previously published material from the ‘European Railway’ series as well as new material that was filmed in 1999, 2000, 2012 and 2013.
The programme also looks at members of the class working in the UK that have since been ‘exported’ to France for duties there. We continue with scenes of the first European examples leased by Porterbrook to HGK, HHPI, Shortlines, ERC and DLC Railways working container and freight trains at locations from the Docks at Rotterdam, to Berlin, The Rhein Valley and south on the main route to Basel.
The DVD is divided into separate sections looking at the locomotives at work in the various years leading up to 2013 where we see a wide variety of liveries and operators, including some examples sporting different colour schemes applied over the years as they changed operators. The ex-EWS locomotives sent from the UK to France are also seen at work on a variety of freight duties from Automotive, Stone, Cement, Bauxite, Steel and container services. Class 77s are seen at work in France and in Germany: we also include newer examples of the class 66 working in Belgium (Antwerpen, Moresnet Viaduct and Zeebrugge) as well as in Germany and in France. The programme ends with EWS-liveried 66 030 on cement at Liskeard & Freightliner’s 66 953 at Cheltenham re-starting a heavy stone train.