'Lets do the Locomotion?

 U.S. tariffs will mean for Trains!

It seems a good idea to the U.S. to bring home jobs for heavy industries, but will it really work in 2025 or be the cause of more problems and broken promises as last time around to the Ohio dust belt?

The building of locomotives is not what it was and now with many nations going electric, there is no demand for Diesel and the dirt that they produce, meanwhile Africa is looking to China for conventional engines, because they are cheaper!

In the U.K. we face loosing our Scunthorpe Chinese owned steel mills and many rail projects may go under or come to nothing?

When these import taxes hit, we may need to start to look to Europe or the far-east for a Class 66 replacement, since many were built in Canada

Class 66 Lives on!

The American/Canadian Class 66 lives on?

At this time there remains no real replacement to the British class 66 locomotive, there are some newer classes but no substantial orders have been made for them in relation to freight haulage!

In fact many European engines are being returned to the U.K. to replace the early first introduction 6600-20 and there looks like no other engine is to replace it in the near future?

Like the Class 43 (Intercity 125) in passenger travel, it has seen a rebuild and over forty years of service. Many countries do not let go of their locomotion so quickly and hold on in reserve what might come in handy at a later date!

The price of fuels is one key factor the other be reliability and also ease of use to the existing drivers! None of these 66's were ever as far as ones knows ever employed in passenger services, apart from recovery of preservation trains?

The Class 66/1-9.

General Motors Locomotive.

The Class 66 Locomotive (12N-710G3B-EC) has been perhaps the best ever to have entered service in Britain. This Canadian built engine is the backbone of most freight operations in the UK. 

(Northern-Ireland Translink jointly owns their Class 201's with the Republic of Ireland. Thirty-four were delivered to Ireland from 1994-95, but most of these are now withdrawn apart from the Dublin to Belfast Enterprise service and the Dublin to Cork service. Ireland has replaced them with state of the art South-Korean DMU's).

Over four-hundred locomotives have been purchased since they were first introduced in 1998-2008. They have proved to be an invaluable asset, working all types of freight duties from coal trains to container freight. You will see them nearly in every part of the country, working day and night.

Two versions were built for the UK, the JT42CWR and JT42CWRM low emissions engines. Some of the British loco's were sent to France to work in the Channel tunnel crossings, but I think all these have now returned. Meanwhile the first delivered have been withdrawn for servicing and assigned to other workings. 

Speed and weights vary between the Irish and British versions. IR locos worked 90-100mph and weighed 112 tonnes. British version had a top speed of 87.5 mph, but were restricted to 60-75mph. their weight was heavier at 127 tonnes.