New Engines

For the past couple of years some of our trains to Lancaster and Preston have been hauled by 50 year old Class 37 diesel electric locos. The very distinctive noise made by these ancient giants led them to be called Growlers. They have been quite unreliable and this led to many late or cancelled trains.

Now on three day each week we have new locos as seen at Arnside station this morning. These are Class 68s and the one in the picture was made in 2013. They can do 100mph. Sadly they had to be built in Spain, an unfortunate situation for the country which introduced railways to the world.

And we are back to having to have an engine at each end because there are no facilities at Preston for moving an engine from one end to the other.

Finally it amused me to see that even the engine appears to have first and second class accommodation.