Return of The Claytons.
It’s half a century since Clayton diesel locomotives ran on West Cumbrian metals, and with good reason as they were one of the more unreliable machines to take to the rails (although - IMHO - they were handsome beasts).
So it’s time to forgive and forget and welcome a new breed of Clayton Bo-Bo locomotives back to West Cumbria, but this time for the Sellafield site railway.
One of the new Clayton CBD80 hybrid locomotives is pictured at Sellafield on 30 May 2021. The 80 tonne Bo-Bo locos combine battery power with a EU stage five, low emission diesel engine to help Sellafield Ltd. meet its environmental targets. When I took this picture they had no fleet numbers but have since received numbers 1 & 2.
Strange that the Clayton Equipment Company - that built over a hundred of the most unreliable and short lived classes of locomotive on B.R.- is the only surviving independent British locomotive builder! But they ARE successful having built similar locomotives for TaTa steel as well as various designs for shunting, Metro maintenance, mining and tunnelling locomotives.
Return of The Claytons.
It’s half a century since Clayton diesel locomotives ran on West Cumbrian metals, and with good reason as they were one of the more unreliable machines to take to the rails (although - IMHO - they were handsome beasts).
So it’s time to forgive and forget and welcome a new breed of Clayton Bo-Bo locomotives back to West Cumbria, but this time for the Sellafield site railway.
One of the new Clayton CBD80 hybrid locomotives is pictured at Sellafield on 30 May 2021. The 80 tonne Bo-Bo locos combine battery power with a EU stage five, low emission diesel engine to help Sellafield Ltd. meet its environmental targets. When I took this picture they had no fleet numbers but have since received numbers 1 & 2.
Strange that the Clayton Equipment Company - that built over a hundred of the most unreliable and short lived classes of locomotive on B.R.- is the only surviving independent British locomotive builder! But they ARE successful having built similar locomotives for TaTa steel as well as various designs for shunting, Metro maintenance, mining and tunnelling locomotives.