I (Andy) had the chance to visit London on Friday 10th April 2015, so I purchased a Off-Peak Travelcard and off I went, visiting many places; Clapham Junction, Hendon, St Pancras International, London Paddington, Ealing Broadway and London Waterloo.
However this post is many focused on my main mission of the trip - to visit Chiltern's London Marylebone to see the Loco Hauled services (Class 67 & 68 locomotives.)
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Photo - © Andy. 68 013 at Marylebone London.
I had missed 68 010 on the 16:47 for Birmingham. . |
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Beforehand I had been in contact with Chiltern's Customer Service who were very friendly and said I would need to print off the Photography information on there wesbite while it would just be turn up and see what stock was out! On Arrival at London Marylebone from the Bakerloo line, I was unsure what to do so asked the Gate-line staff at around 4:50 pm. The staff were very friendly and advised me to go to the Information point where more friendly staff instructed me and a friend to sign in and then we received a sticker to say our visitor number then off to the platforms we went!
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© Andy. 68 015, 17:50 Marylebone to Banbury commuter |
- 68's are manufactured by Vossloh, 15 were built from 2013 - 2014 with the first arriving in the UK in early 2014. Another 10 have been ordered and are currently being built, with the first due to arrive in October 2015.
- A couple of the new names have been released, with 68 016 "Fearless" , 68 017 "Reliance" , 68 018 "Vigilance" and 68 019 "Hornet".
- Chiltern has 6 Class 68 locomotives available for them to use, those being numbered from 68 010 - 68 015. Also 68 008 and 009 are available for Chiltern to use as both these DRS liveried 68's have been fitted with push-pull equipment.
- The Class 68 locomotives are mixed - traffic locomotives: operating on both passenger and freight services, although they will not be used on Nuclear Flask Trains.