European Railroad Discussion > A Bit of a Winter Treat

A bit of a treat for November in the UK, that is!

There has been lots of wind, rain and cloudy skies recently, but today they cleared to give some brightness and the railroad gods also smiled down and sent a rare class 60-hauled aggregates/rock train which travelled from a granite quarry in North Wales (Penmaenmawr)) to London. I caught it mid-afternoon just south of Crewe in Cheshire as it worked hard to move the 2400 tonne train up the slight gradient at this location.
Not too many photographic opportunities in an English winter, so nice to get out and capture some photons...

Not too many class 60s are still running, a very distinctive deep horn and a thumping engine note from their 3100hp, 8-cylinder Mirrlees power unit has given them something of a cult following. It brought out a few other railfans as well, just on the left of the photo a couple can be seen enjoying the sight and sound. This one is operated by DCR (Devon and Cornwall Railways), is numbered 60055 and carries the name 'Thomas Barnardo'.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 11/16/25 15:06 by exhaustED.

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Beautiful photo!

Nice to see they're still alive & kicking.

86235 Wrote:
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> Nice to see they're still alive & kicking.

Yes it is, I used to enjoy seeing them on the steel trains on the Marches line…

Posted from iPhone

I used to enjoy sitting in the back cab of new Class 60’s when they used to work the heavy limestone trains out of Redmire, North Yorkshire to Lackenby Steelworks on Teesside.

My mate was the line foreman, so that helped!

When loaded (coming out of Redmire) as the train got onto the East Coast Main Line at Castle Hills junction, the loco would then have to shove the train wrong road down the ECML into Northallerton station. Then proceed as normal down the branch to Yarm and onto Teesside.

Years earlier as a kid trainspotting at Northallerton, the trains were in the hands of Thornaby Class 40’s/47’s. Class 37’s replaced those, which in turn were replaced by Class 60’s.

Posted from iPhone

I was a student in Loughborough in the '90s when rows of brand new class 60s were being slowly tested and entered into service. I liked them from the start.