BRITISH RAIL CLASS 57/3

The 'British Rail Class 57/3' is a subclass of the British Rail Class 57 used by Virgin Trains.
Under their franchise agreement, Virgin Trains was required to purchase new locomotives to replace its elderly Class 47 locomotives. As a result, an order for sixteen 'Class 57/3' locomotives was placed with Brush Traction. They are employed as rescue locomotives (so called "Thunderbird" duties), and are used to drag Virgin Train's electric train when engineering works force services to be diverted. They are also used to haul Crewe to Holyhead passenger trains.
Initially, twelve locomotives were ordered. However, this was increased to sixteen to allow the virtual elimination of Class 47 locomotives from stand-by duties. The first twelve locomotives were retro-fitted with special coupling adaptors, called 'Dellner' couplers, to allow them to haul a Pendolino unit. The last four locomotives were fitted with the equipment from new.
The Virgin fleet is painted in their red and silver livery, and locomotives are named after characters from the TV series "Thunderbirds".

Contents

July 2007 Incident

Fleet details

July 2007 Incident

On the 19th July 2007, the coupling on 57311 ''Parker'' parted from 390005 ''City Of Wolverhampton'', when they were leaving with the 05.28 from Euston to Holyhead, damaging some components.
Virgin then, as a precaution, checked all 16 57/3's, and found four which they thought would need an overhaul. These were 57301, 57304, 57311 and 57313.

Fleet details

Number	Name	Rebuilt from	Notes	Link to nameplate picture
57301	''Scott Tracy''	47845		[1]
57302	''Virgil Tracy''	47827		[2]
57303	''Alan Tracy''	47705		[3]
57304	''Gordon Tracy''	47807		[4]
57305	''John Tracy''	47822		[5]
57306	''Jeff Tracy''	47814		[6]
57307	''Lady Penelope''	47225	Pink nameplate	[7]
57308	''Tin-Tin''	47846		[8]
57309	''Brains''	47806		[9]
57310	''Kyrano''	47831		[10]
57311	''Parker''	47817		[11]
57312	''The Hood''	47330		[12]
57313	''Tracy Island''	47371		[13]
57314	''Firefly''	47372		[14]
57315	''The Mole''	47234		[15]
57316	''FAB 1''	47290		[16]

# 57303 was originally to be rebuilt from 47849. However, this donor locomotive had a damaged underframe, which was only discovered once rebuilding work had started, and so it was replaced by 47705. The part-converted shell of 47849 was later scrapped.This locomotive was in an earlier guise, involved in the Eltham derailment in 1972.
# 57307 was originally to be rebuilt from 47844. During the initial survey of the locomotive it was found to be unsuitable and was replaced by 47225. The shell of 47844 was moved to Crewe railway works for static display, but was later scrapped on-site.

Subclasses of British Rail Class 57
57/0	57/3	57/6