The story of the Class 57 diesel locomotive.
In this first part of the Class 57 Story I will be looking at the 57/0s that have been operated by Freightliner, Advenza and Direct Rail Services (DRS). In later episodes I will look at the 57/6s and the 57/3s coming soon.
The Class 57 is a diesel locomotive that was built using the body shells of redundant Class 47 locomotives and fitted with a refurbished Electro-Motive Diesel engine the same model of traction alternator as used by the Class 56 heavy freight locomotive.
They were constructed by Brush Traction at its plant in Loughborough starting in 1997 when Freightliner ordered an initial six locomotives. These were to compliment its existing fleet of Class 47s.
They were designated as Class 57/0s and the first of these was released in July 1998.
After an initial evaluation period Freightliner planned to have a fleet of twenty five locomotives.
In the event only twelve were made numbered between 57001 and 57012 as Freightliner decided to commit to the new built Class 66s instead to replace its fleet of ageing Class 47s.
During 2007 Freightliner began to withdraw its Class 57s as the companies new Class 66 locomotive began to enter service. The locomotives were returned to the train leasing company Porterbrook.
Nine locomotives were leased to Direct Rail Services in July 2007 and two locomotives 57005 and 57006 were purchased from Porterbrook by the short lived Advenza Freight operation. After Advenza ceased operations in 2009 both were sold to West Coast Railways.