The British Rail Class 60 is a class of Co-Co heavy freight diesel-electric locomotives built by Brush Traction. They are nicknamed Tugs by rail enthusiasts.
During the 1980s, it became increasingly apparent that British Rail required a more capable Type 5 locomotive for its heavy freight trains. Dissatisfaction with the British Rail Class 56's reliability led to the stipulation of a 95 per cent availability, a stringent requirement at the time. A total of three bids were received to a competitive tender issued on 10 August 1987; of these, Brush Traction's submission was selected and an order for 100 locomotives was issued during the following year. Despite the first example being completed during June 1989, due to a number of technical issues discovered during testing, the first examples of the Class 60 would not enter revenue service until late 1990. At a cost of £1.5 million each, the locomotives were the largest single expenditure in a restructuring of the Railfreight sector of BR, which over a three-year period, saw a £264 annual loss turned into a £44 million profit through management changes and traffic-specific organisation.
Operating during the final years of British Rail, the entire Class 60 fleet became the property of English Welsh & Scottish (EWS) following the privatisation of British Rail during the mid-1990s. While the company was reportedly unimpressed by the type's performance, it was retained for heavy freight duties while much of the fleet was stored and subsequently sold on to other operators. Between 2004 and 2007, typically between 50 and 75% of the fleet would be out of action at a given time. However, during November 2010, EWS's successor, DB Schenker, announced that a portion of the fleet would be overhauled, referring to such units as Super 60s and extending their service life through to around 2025. Not all Class 60s received such overhauls however. During 2020, a Class 60 became the first example of the type to be scrapped, while another became the first to be preserved.
History During the early 1980s, British Rail operated several different diesel locomotives that had been categorised as Type 5, these being a relatively high-powered locomotive suited to heavy freight trains, such as the Class 56 and Class 58. However, the Class 56 proved to be somewhat unreliable, contributing to dissatisfaction amongst British Rail's customer base. One such customer, Foster Yeoman, became so disillusioned with the locomotives supplied for its aggregates trains that it procured its own private fleet of Class 59 locomotives from General Motors Electro-Motive Division in the United States. British Rail was reportedly interested in acquiring its own fleet of Class 59 locomotives, but hesitated in fear of objections by trade unions that such an order would not support British manufacturers. To avoid causing tension, BR decided that it should continue to support domestic suppliers when making new orders.
These various factors drove British Rail to produce a stringent requirement calling for a new Type 5 diesel locomotive for use on its Trainload Freight sector. In terms of its basic configuration, it sought a high-powered low-speed locomotive suitable for its existing core traffic operations. Furthermore, this requirement stipulated that the tentative locomotive would be required to maintain an average availability of no less than 95 per cent, which was far higher than any locomotive to have been operated by British Rail at that time. It was believed that the high performance levels demanded would generate considerable cost reductions, as well as significantly bolstering efforts within British Rail's rail freight division to meet targets set out by the British government. It was forecast that 100 of these new locomotives could replace 236 older ones of various types, including classes 20, 33, and 47, many of which would be withdrawn or cascaded onto other duties.
Despite having discounted a direct purchase of the Class 59, during the research phase, some of the concepts for the Class 60 were reportedly modelled upon its design. Inspiration was also drawn from the French rail freight industry. Roughly a dozen designs were studied, based upon staff feedback and market research; a total of three were carried through to the advanced stages of study, during which mock-ups were produced. A late-stage decision to reduce the size of the engine compartment enabled the redesign of the cabs at either end of the locomotive.
On 10 August 1987, the British Railways Board issued a competitive tender for response by 7 November, for a fleet of 100 locomotives. A total of six companies were invited to tender, these being Brush Electrical Machines, GEC Transportation, General Motors, General Electric, Metro-Cammell and NEI Consortium. Of these, only three companies chose to respond with a bid by the November 1987 deadline: 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 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.
Of the three bidders, Brush's submission was selected as the winner. On 17 May 1988, the placement of an order for 100 locomotives with Brush valued at £120 million was announced by Paul Channon, the Secretary of State for Transport. Production of the type commenced quickly thereafter. Brush decided to subcontract much of the component manufacturing work, while performing final assembly of each locomotive at its erecting shops at Loughborough. The bodyshell of the Class 60, which was shared with the Class 92 electric locomotives, was fabricated by Procor (UK) of Wakefield. The engine was a higher-powered development of the Mirrlees engine, which had been previously fitted experimentally to Class 37 nos. 37 901-37 904.
On 1 July 1989, less than 14 months following the order's announcement, the first locomotive departed Brush, having been formally handed over to British Rail in a ceremony held the day beforehand. Specific areas that required redesign work included the control software, suspension system, and structural elements; reportedly, there were in excess of 100 individual faults ultimately identified, resulting in a threat of the order's cancellation being issued unless the outstanding problems were rectified. It would take two years before 60 001, the first member of the class, would be available for traffic. As a consequence of needing to make modifications, none of the Class 60s were used operationally until the following year.
During late 1990, British Rail accepted the first pair of locomotives into revenue service. Initially, the Class 60s were divided amongst several sectors of British Rail; 42 locomotives were assigned to coal traffic, while 13 were tasked with construction trains, along with 17 locomotives for moving metal trains and a further 17 for petroleum movements. A further seven were used during the construction of the Channel Tunnel, before being reassigned to general construction duties. During March 1993, the final locomotive of the class was accepted into traffic.
Design
Bodywork Unlike the Classes 59 and 66 (solid girder underframe) the Class 60s have a monocoque stressed skin construction with diagonal trusses – with the external bodywork providing support for the internal components.
Two different cab designs were considered and full size mock-ups were made in wood, plastic and metal by the Engineering Development Unit at the Railway Technical Centre in Derby. One of these had a French-style Nez Cassé cab, but this was rejected in favour of a more conventional cab.
Electrical The main alternator is a Brush BA1006A type, providing power for the traction motors via rectification circuits to DC. The auxiliary alternator is Brush BAA 702A Auxiliary Alternator, providing power for the radiator fans, lubrication and fuel oil pumps, traction motor cooling fans and air compressors amongst others. The main and auxiliary alternators are both driven by the main engine.
Each of the six axles is driven via a reduction gear by one nose suspended axle hung traction motor (Brush designed and built the TM2161A four-pole motors). Each motor has a separate microprocessor-controlled power supply (SEPEX in Brush's designation – from "Separately Excited"), a system that was first tried on one Class 58, 58050, allowing the speed of a slipping axle to be reduced without affecting the others.
Prime mover The engine is an eight-cylinder, Mirrlees Blackstone 8MB275T four-stroke diesel traction engine. The Mirrlees engine was one of the most fuel efficient available at the time (189g of fuel per kWh), but relatively heavy. The engine was also successfully installed in marine applications such as small ships and passenger ferries. The low cylinder count for the rated power was expected to result in lower maintenance costs.
Engine dimensions Eight cylinders in line Bore, Stroke, Power output, at 1,000 rpm
Current operators GB Railfreight In July 2018, GB Railfreight bought all ten of Colas Rail's Class 60 locomotives, Colas having replaced them with a further seven orders for Class 70 locomotives.
DCRail In March 2019 DCRail acquired four locomotives from DB Cargo; 60 028, 029, 046, 055. These have been overhauled by DB Cargo at Toton TMD with 60 046 the first to enter service in November 2019. Two later overhauls, 60099 and 60022, joined the fleet in 2025 and 2026 respectively.
ESH Rail / EPR Ltd On 1 July 2026, it was announced that ESH Rail (Enviro Skip Hire) had purchased 63 of the 64 locomotives owned by DB Cargo UK. ESH then purchased the two Class 60s which were in private ownership and moved them to Boden Rail Engineering at Colwick for component recovery. ESH Rail were looking for an operating license and came to an agreement with EPR to purchase their Freight Operating Company before the end of the July.
Former operators British Rail
By the end of 1990, 12 members of the class had been introduced to revenue service. The first locomotives to be accepted into traffic were 60 017 and 60 018 in October 1990. Their introduction replaced double-heading and also allowed longer and/or heavier trains to be worked. The type enabled the replacement of previously double-headed Class 33 Type 3s in the South East region, as well as Classes 20, 26, 27, 31 and 73. The relatively youthful Class 58 fleet were also cascaded from the coal traffic they had been the staple of. During March 1993, the final locomotive of the class was accepted into traffic.
In preparation for the privatisation of British Rail, the organisation's freight business was divided into five separate units; of these, three would operate the Class 60. Mainline Freight were assigned 52 of the type, while Loadhaul and Transrail Freight received 31 and 17 Class 60s respectively. These entities only briefly existed before their purchase by English Welsh & Scottish (EWS), thus transferring all members of the Class to a single private sector operator.
English, Welsh and Scottish (EWS)