WEST COAST RAILWAY COMPANY

'West Coast Railway Company' (WCRC) is a railway spot-hire company and charter train operator, based at Carnforth in Lancashire. In 1998, the company became the first privately-owned company to be given a licence as a train operating company.

Contents

Description

Fleet Details

Steam locomotives

Diesel locomotives

External links

Description

The company operates charter trains throughout the year, many of which are hauled by its fleet of steam locomotives. The most famous of these is '''The Jacobite''' (named for the historic Jacobite political movement), which runs from Fort William to Mallaig in the West Highlands, and passes over the spectacular Glenfinnan Viaduct. ''The Jacobite'' is the only scheduled steam operated service on the National Rail network.
The company also owns and operates a fleet of diesel locomotives, which are primarily used to haul charter trains, but have also been hired to other railway operators. The fleet is mostly composes of Class 37 and Class 47 locomotives, but also includes the prototype passenger Class 57, no. 57601. The Class 37 locomotives were all purchased from Ian Riley Engineering, which ceased its spot-hire operations in mid-2004. Its coaching stock consists mainly of Mark 1 and Mark 2 coaches and a small number of Mark 3 sleeper vehicles.
In 2005, WCRC won the contract to haul the Royal Scotsman luxury train from EWS. As a result, its two operational Class 37 locomotives and a Class 47 were repainted into a revised maroon livery, based on that of the Royal Scotsman carriages.
In late 2005, WCRC sold its two operational Class 37 locomotives (nos. 37197 and 37261) to Direct Rail Services (DRS), and received four Class 33 locomotives in exchange. WCRC later sold non-operational locomotive no. 37423 to DRS as well. In 2006, WCRC hired two preserved locomotives, nos. 37214 and 37248.
In early 2007, WCRC purchased five class 47/7 locos from EWS. These were nos. 47760, 47776, 47786, 47787 and 47792. These loco's had been stored at Healey Mills, near Wakefield, after being deemed surplus to requirements. Of these, 47792 has been returned to service and returned to its former number, 47804. The remaining loco's are currently under repair and are expected to return to traffic at some point in 2007.

Fleet Details

Key:	In service	Withdrawn	Preserved	Under repair	Sold for further use	Scrapped

Steam locomotives

Number	Name	Class	Livery	Status
5972	Olton Hall	GWR "Hall" Class 4-6-0	Maroon	Operational
45699	Galatea	LMS "Jubilee" Class 4-6-0	N/A	Under restoration
46115	Scots Guardsman	LMS "Royal Scot" Class 4-6-0	N/A	Under restoration
48151	'Gauge O Guild'	LMS Stanier Class 8F 2-8-0	BR Black	Operational
62005	'Lord of Isles'	LNER Thompson/Peppercorn Class K1	BR Black	Operational, usually based at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway

Diesel locomotives

Number	Class	Name	Livery	Year Acquired	Previous Operator	Status
08220	08	-	BR Black	1986	ex-British Rail	Operational
08678	08	Ulverstonian	BR Blue	1993	ex-Glaxo, Ulverston	Operational
33025	33	Glen Falloch	WCRC Maroon (Revised)	2005	ex-Direct Rail Services	Operational
33029	33	Glen Loy	WCRC Maroon (Revised)	2005	ex-Direct Rail Services	Operational
33030	33	-	DRS Blue	2005	ex-Direct Rail Services	Stored
33207	33	Jim Martin	WCRC Maroon (Revised)	2005	ex-Direct Rail Services	Operational
37158	37	-	Maroon Undercoat	2006	ex-Preservation	Withdrawn
37197	37	Loch Laidon	WCRC Maroon (Revised)	2004	ex-Ian Riley Engineering	Sold to DRS in 2005
37214	37	Loch Laidon	WCRC Maroon (Revised)	2005	ex-Preservation	Under Repair
37235	37	-	Trainload Grey	2004	ex-Ian Riley Engineering	Withdrawn
37248	37	Loch Arkaig	WCRC Maroon (Revised)	2005	ex-Preservation	Operational
37261	37	Loch Arkaig	WCRC Maroon (Revised)	2004	ex-Ian Riley Engineering	Sold to DRS in 2005
37423	37	-	Trans-Rail	2004	ex-Ian Riley Engineering	Sold to DRS in 2006
47245	47	-	WCRC Maroon (Revised)	2003	ex-HNRC	Operational
47760	47	-	EWS	2007	ex-EWS	Under Repair
47776	47	-	Rail Express Systems	2007	ex-EWS	Under Repair
47786	47	-	EWS	2007	ex-EWS	Under Repair
47787	47	-	EWS	2007	ex-EWS	Under Repair
47804	47	-	WCRC Maroon (Revised)	2007	ex-EWS	Operational
47826	47	-	WCRC Maroon (Revised)	2005	ex-Virgin Trains	Operational
47851	47	Traction Magazine	BR Two Tone Green	2005	ex-Virgin Trains	Operational
47854	47	-	WCRC Maroon (Revised)	2002	ex-Virgin Trains	Operational
57601	57	-	WCRC Maroon	2003	ex-Porterbrook Spot Hire	Operational

Note: Number 37248 is owned by a private individual or group, but is used as part of the operational WCRC fleet. 37214 was also privately owned, but is now owned outright by WCRC.

External links

★ West Coast Railway Company website

★ West Coast Railway Company website

★ Information on "The Jacobite"