Low Emmission Class 66?
 

I saw 66952 heading towards King George Dock with a train of empty coal hoppers last Tuesday. Is it one of those 'low emmission' experimental loco's that I've read about?

Trev,
I hope you had your camera with you and took some shots of it.
Syd

Unfortunately not Syd, I was on the bus on my way to work.

Low emmision Class 66
 

What livery was 66952 painted in when you it last Tuesday? If 66952 is in Freightliner livery, it may be one of the new 'low emmission' locos, but I will need to check my references at home.

Yep, it was in the Freightliner green, Philip.

Trev
You are just going to have to learn to take a camera with you where ever you go. I have a small camera with me all the time and normaly have my main one as well. Thats how I got the shot of City of Truro on the back of a low loader on the M5. I have even used a phone camera.
Syd

I should do really, it's just that my digital camera is one of the 'first generation' ones.....in other words, it only just fits into my pocket and doesn't leave much room for anything else. I should borrow my daughter's camera, it's a beautiful slimline thing that you hardly notice in your pocket. Only thing is, she likes to keep it with her to take photographs of birds and wouldn't be very happy if I 'borrowed' it for long periods.

I should really get a new one. :o

Easy way to check for 66/9s - they have three doors on one side of the body (at least) because the coller group is larger and the builders did not think it was possible to get through from one end cab - but it is apparently and an internal door has been fitted - so the third door is redundant...

since 66's are quite powerful locos I guess they have good acceleration, perhaps if they had a greater maximum speed than around 80 mph, then they could be used on passenger loco hauled services (perhaps charter services with a lot of coaches), however they are quite noisy locos (but then again so are the HST's)
Dave

quite noisy is an understatement - they are dreaful!!! When they first came into the country all had to go through a retrofit for greater insulation to the cabs - otherwise the drivers would not use them!!! Now the noise at work limits have changed I wonder whether the unions are looking at the issue again...

An interesting element of the low emission pack is that the fuel efficiency goes down - thereby not really doing anything for the environment...

I remember when Network rail were relaying the track between Crewe and Cheadle Hulme in Winter, they used 66's, they used to leave the engines runing all day, and these are noisy locos, why do this?

It is more than likley that if you turn them off,the other system's dont work i.e heating and light's,just my opion i might be wrong.
All the best,Ian

can these supply power for coachign stock? I have heared that Mk3's have limited loco choice but I know that class 67's and 47's can power these locos. How about 66's?

No - no ets at all on these - hence EWSs choice of the (even worse) 67...

Claass 66 are only designed to do a max speed of 75mph, class 66/6 are lower geared and only do 60mph.
They would not be suitable for passenger workings in general use (ie ok for specials) as there is no ETS (or HEP) supply, the 67s do have HEP.
If the locos are shut down, this will cause a loss of air to the brakes over a period of time, also no anciliaries will run , such as heating, lighting will cause the batteries to become flat, and if you drop out the BIS, you will loose the lights anyway, yes theyappear to be noisy, but in truth they are no noisier than other locos, and the noise you can here is actually the comppressor, under load and then unloading (thats the "ying ying"), the compressors cannot be isolated, as they are a direct drive from the crankshaft of the engine.

66 951 and 952 are both lower emmission locos , built the EMD tier 2 spec, which conforms to the UIC regs, the tier 3 locos (which havent been built yet) will comply with the latest european & UIC emmissions regs.
951 and 952 are both Freightliner locos, and can be identified by some differences to the construction, yes there is a third door in the engine room, this is because the cooler groups are larger to cope with new emissions and therefore the space envolope in the cooler group access is very restricted, hence the exyra door, the cabs are very slightly different too, having the Scandivanian side two pice windows.
The latest batch of GBRF locos which arrived a couple of weeks ago, are alkso to the new Tier 2 design.

Thanks for that Ringo.

So if I get to see 951, then I've completed another class! :D

Although the only classes I ever did complete were the Deltics and the 44's. :(

hey, 66/9's are the low emission sub class i beleive, sorry if i am wrong but i am sure i have heard that