Class 67 - The Skips

1st November 2003

Well, what can I say about the Class 67s? Apart from the fact that they are grotesque bloated mingers with little in the way of charm? Well, they remind me of lager louts out on the town; very loud, not much pulling power and renown for getting into scrapes, like trying to jump over a traffic cone and realizing (too late) that it is in fact a rake of MGR wagons.

Introduced to the UK in 1999, having been built under GM sub-contract in Spain by Alstom, the first examples were found to be;

a) too heavy for most routes,
b) weaker than Tiny Tim (after he died), and
c) a bit gay (in the rubbishy sense of the word)

They were intended for high-speed mail traffic but in a highly controversial move the Royal Mail yanked much of the work away from the railways during 2003. The Class 67s also tried their (fair, unsullied, girlish) hands at long-distance passenger work but they couldn't hack that either.

So they made an ideal choice for the Royal Train. (??!?!)

Those examples of the multi-million pound Class that are not currently sat in storage can usually be found on light freight workings and numerous weekend charters. A handful are also employed on "thunderbird" duties for the East Coast Main Line. That's when they're not browsing the cosmetics selection in Marks & Spencers...

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