The GB Railfreight Class 92 story started in 2007, well before the company actually got their hands on some! Europorte2 - the freight operating arm of Eurotunnel - acquired the former EPS passenger fleet in 2007, followed by the (stored) SNCF fleet in 2011. The stated intention was to use them for cross channel freight traffic.

A period of inactivity followed but, after acquisiton of the company from FirstGroup in 2010, some of the Europorte2 Class 92 fleet was progressively introduced on GBRF freight services. The first one was the daily Felixstowe-Trafford Park service which was electrically hauled from Ipswich Yard to Trafford Park and vice versa to release a Class 66 for other work.

Intitially a small batch of locos was reactivated and one such example was 92043 'Debussy' which is seen here passing Gatley with 4L18 Trafford Park-Felixstowe. The Europorte2 decals are visible on the bodyside.

The fleet was eventually transferred/sold to GB and more examples returned to active service, a process that was accelerated after winning the Caledonian Sleeper contract. Unfortunately though, this train reverted to Class 66 operation.

(18/07/2013)

Tags:   GBRF Europorte Class 92 92043

© All Rights Reserved

92034 87004 and 87034 at Zlatitsa, Bulgaria.

The track machine seen at the rear of the formation had failed in the single line section between Pirdop and Zlatitsa and was rescued by the combination of British locos. The 87s were heading for Pirdop from Sofia and the 92 was heading for Chelopech from Pirdop. The first working of 92 and 87 together?

Tags:   92034 87004 87034 Bulgaria BZK Zlatitsa Pirdop Sofia DB

© All Rights Reserved

2013 saw Class 92 back in favour with DB Schenker and there was a concerted effort to bring some of the longer stored examples back into traffic to replace diesels under the wires. One such example was 92002 which received attention at Crewe Electric and made it back into service by August, seen here at Crewe leading the regular 0A06 light engine move to Wembley. In tow are 92015 66013 and 90036 sporting freshly overhauled bogies.

Illustrating the continually changing priorities at DB, less than two years later when it was realised that a single Class 92 was more expensive to run than two Class 90s, Class 92 was out of favour with DB in the UK (again). They were exported to Eastern Europe as a cheaper source of motive power for subsidiary companies. Bulgaria and Romania gained small fleets of the class with 92002 ending up in the latter country as 472 003.

A fleet of five Class 92s remain in traffic with DB to service the small number of trains running through the channel tunnel and along High Speed One. These are still maintained at Crewe Electric although hauled dead to and from the depot as an item of equipment required for operation on Network Rail metals has been isolated. This, reportedly, has increased reliability of the complex machines.

© All Rights Reserved