[UK] “Continental” Class66 Beacon Rail / GB Railfreight livery variations

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Several times, Railcolor News wrote about the relocated Beacon Rail Class66 locomotives, coming from continental Europe and retrofitted for services in the UK. During the past three years, eleven machines (66734II, 66790-66799) came to the UK for operation with GB Railfreight, which tends to give them locomotives new special liveries.

We have featured five of them so far, two more standard designs were still missing in our archives, until today:

  • 66734II > in Platinum Jubilee design / 100th class66 GBRf;
  • 66790 > GBRf design; orange/yellow/blue;
  • 66791 > Beacon design (blue/gold) with white GBRf logos;
  • 66792> GBRf design; orange/yellow/blue;
  • 66793in British Rail heritage design; Triple grey design with Construction decal;
  • 66794in British Rail heritage design; Triple grey design with Petroleum decal – name “Steve Hannam”;
  • 66795 > GBRf design; orange/yellow/blue;
  • 66796in HS2 design.
  • 66797 > Beacon design (blue/gold) with Beacon logo and gold GBRf logos
  • 66798 > GBRf design; orange/yellow/blue;
  • 66799 > GBRf design; orange/yellow/blue;

The locomotives came from Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany to the UK. The conversions were done by EMD in Doncaster and Longport, and included the fitting of air conditioning, soundproofing, double glazing, and cab improvements. Additionally, they got the most up-to-date GSMR and TPWS systems. Then they enter service to the motive power-hungry GB Railfreight.

The current standard livery of GBRf is used for 66790, 66795, 66798 and 66799 – of which you see the latter one below:

BRLL / GBRf 66799 in West Ealing on 13.06.2022 © Peter Gradidge

66791 has the (now old) Beacon Rail design – blue and gold with Beacon’s former lighthouse logo. It has simple white GBRf logos and numbers:

BRLL > GBRf 66791 at Shrewley on 14.06.2022 © Kevin Payne

66797 features the new Beacon Rail visual identity, again gold and blue but with the BRLL circles on the side of the locomotive.

BRLL / GBRf 66797 near Nethertown on 08.05.2022 on a weed control train © Dave McAlone