During the mid-1980s, British Rail required another heavy freight locomotive, and having gained authorization from the Government, invited companies to tender. The Class 60 would be constructed using lessons learned from the previous Class 56 and Class 58. While six organisations were invited to tender for the contract, only three did so, which were:

• Metro-Cammell – offered a Metro-Cammell body with an option of traction packages, many untried, and could not offer performance guarantees as stipulated by the tender

• General Electric Company – a partnership with General Motors and Electro Motive. They offered a state-of-the-art Class 59, built in the UK, probably at Crewe Works, which had an existing partnership for construction of the Class 91 electric locos

• Brush Traction – offered a locomotive powered by either a Mirrlees or Ruston engine, and used separately excited (Sepex) traction control, as previously tested on the Class 58.

Brush Traction was announced the winner of the contract on 17th May 1988, with a powerful 60 Mile Per Hour (MPH) Type 5 Locomotive in a Co-Co wheel arrangement. This resulted in an order with a value of £120 Million placed for 100 locomotives.

With the technological advances that had been developed over the years within the rail industry, the new locomotives which was designated Class 60, was a far more advanced locomotive than earlier Type 5 designs built by British Rail, with the locomotives in the planning stages would afford superior haulage capacity whilst also providing excellent fuel economy.

The aim for the Class 60 was to bring a new fleet more inline with the haulage capacity of the Foster Yeoman Class 59’s than the previous British Rail designed Class 56 and 59’s. However, modern technology does also have its disadvantages aswell, with the Class 60’s experiencing a multitude of technological problems, some of which were related to cylinder heads blowing and issues with the Deuta Health Monitoring System, which constantly monitors the current state of the engine and its condition. Now with the technical problems fixed, the Class 60’s are widely regarded by drivers as the preferred choice even to this day.

The Class 60 can develop an incredible amount of power and in terms of capability for a single locomotive regarding performance and haulage ability. The class also has superior traction with their “Creep Control”. Despite this the Class 60 couldn’t match the Class 59 in terms of horsepower with the Class 59 developing 3,300 hp (2,500 kW) only 200 more than the 60, however the latter built Class 66’s couldn’t match the top end performance nor the creep control that the 60 had to offer.

The Class 60’s have been utilized on freight services across the United Kingdom, in many cases they have been used on the heaviest freight traffic where a single locomotive is required.

Over the years, the Class 60 have been subject to incorrect press reports, with it being most unfortunate that in the early days of construction the class were subject to multiple problems arising. This culminated in British Rail almost cancelling the order from Brush Traction.

Construction of the 60 Commenced in 1989, but it was not until 1993 that all 100 members of the class had been accepted into traffic. The delivery dates and names of each locomotive are listed in the table below.

With a projected service lifespan of forty years for the locomotives since new and with many of the class in storage, it seems that this is a terrible waste of such an incredible piece of machinery which is still in many ways fit for purpose. Thankfully some of the Class have been sold by DB Cargo to other operators giving them a longer future in the mainline rail freight industry. Sadly, 60006 was scrapped in January 2020 being the first member of the class meeting the cutter touch.

With your help, by donating and purchasing items from our online shop we can save at least one locomotive by securing and refurbishing it for preservation.