Weekly Photo Challenge: Grid – 2

Railway Enthusiasts in the Uk christened Class 56 locomotives ‘Grids’. Reputedly this was because of the grill over the horns on the later versions of the type but my recollection is that it either related to the large mesh grills around the radiator sections of the locomotives or the fact that they were designed to haul the merry-go-round trains that fed the coal to the power stations for the national grid. Whatever the truth, here are some Grids…

Doyen of the class – 56001 on merry-go-round traffic at Retford.

56024 on merry-go-round traffic at Crofton. The class had been in service for only 8 years when the miners strike of 1984-5 and the subsequent closure of many of Britains coal mines saw them without the work they were designed for. Sharlston Colliery on the distant horizon closed in 1993 and was reduced to a wasteland.

An unidentified member of the class hauls a short intermodal service through Rugby. The majority of the class were withdrawn in 2004 by EWS following the privatisation of British Railways. Of the 135 strong class 27 have been scrapped. A few locomotives have returned to service with other operators both abroad and in the UK. Many remain in store awaiting their fate.

After my initial ‘straight delivery’ for the Weekly Photo Challenge I couldn’t resist going off at a tangent with this second post. I hope it was of interest 🙂