European Railroad Discussion > A foreigner visits Derby, UK

Derby, a major city in the English Midlands, is a railroad town. It is the headquarters of the East Midland Railway and site of a large Alstom plant along with several other rail-related companies. I was there to visit a friend but Sunday, August 24, 2025 was free and I made my way from Derby up to Duffield to ride the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway (more on that later). I had originally planned to ride a Cross Country service up to York to visit the National Railway Museum but with the strike the prior day travel was discouraged and not worth the risk of being stranded far from Derby.

1. Sundays in the UK have almost no freight activity but this makes room for maintenance trains and while waiting for my train to Duffield and I was pleasantly surprised by this welded rail train in 1X1 configuration with two Great British Railfreight 66-class diesels.

2. The going away shot with a different variation of the GBRf paint scheme.

3. Much of the East Midland Railway equipment wears a version of this attractive purple (burgundy?). This is a two-unit EMR Regional DMU set.

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4. Longer distance service, such as up from London, is provided by these modern trainsets.

5. A detail shot of the cab of the second of the two trainsets.

6. Two days later I was back at the Derby station to make my way to north Wales. Here are two of the longer distance trainsets. I would depart for Crewe on a two-unit EMR DMU.

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Weren't those EMD class 66 built for export to Britain?

a737flyer Wrote:
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> Weren't those EMD class 66 built for export to
> Britain?

Yes, developed in coordination with the British and built in London, Ontario, Canada, and Muncie, Indiana. I would say the most common diesel in the UK. At least there are many, many paint schemes.