Some of DB Cargo's Class 66 locomotives are being modified with different gear ratios that will enable them to haul heavier loads.
The modifications will result in the locomotives having a 14% increase in their tractive effort.
DB Cargo's current plans are for ten locomotives to be modified by regearing so that its older and less reliable fleet of Class 60s can be eliminated and which will maximise the efficiency of its fleet.
Modifications will be carried out during routine maintenance when locomotive bogies are due for overhaul. At the same time, new LED headlights and wheel sets, supplied by DB's wagon maintenance facility at Stoke-on-Trent, will be fitted.
To indicate locomotives that have been modified, they will be renumbered in a 666xx series.
DB Cargo's maintenance and engineering teams at Toton TMD in Nottinghamshire will carry out the modifications and repaint each locomotive at the same time.
The first modified Class 66 has been renumbered from 66221 to 66651 and was released back into active service earlier this week at Peak Forest in Derbyshire when it hauled a train of premium-grade limestone from Tarmac's quarry at Tunstead near Buxton, to Tata Chemicals Europe's Lostock works near Northwich in Cheshire.
In 2022, DB Cargo operated a ‘jumbo' freight train on a proving run to demonstrate how it could increase capacity, improve customer service, and improve efficiency.
We are delighted to see 66651 operating in anger for the first time. Our colleagues at Toton have done an excellent job of planning and delivering the necessary modifications, with the second locomotive now in transition.
Jon Harman, DB Cargo UK Head of Asset Management and Maintenance at
So a Shed with Rentier burners and made into what a /6 geared down to what 60?
We have had them at Freightliner for years ! Nothing to se here !
And of course no one is going to call them “Satan Class”
These aren’t anything new. Freightliner have operated these low geared 66s for well over 10 years. GBRF had a few low geared 66s delivered from Europe in 2018 66793/94 and 96.
If they also re-geared the class 67’s to reduce their max speed to (say) 80 mph, could they also be used on freight service, especially container trains?
I was of the understanding Diesel electric locomotives don’t have gears. What exactly are the engineers doing to the locos?
It’ll be the gearing between the electric traction motor and the axle that they are altering. One gear wheel on the end of the traction motor, one connected to the axle and the relative number of teeth get adjusted.
I ll give em a try, but still think they wont be as good in slow speed as a 60.
Let’s see how well these perform come Autumn when the leaf fall season starts….
Surely they still have something called sanders.
Which doesn’t always help in some situations.