Class 67

British Rail Class 67 (EMD JT42HW-HS) — the fast freight diesel that became a passenger oddity

The British Rail Class 67 is what happens when a freight operator orders a locomotive for one job, the job disappears, and the locomotives refuse to be pigeonholed. Built as a Bo-Bo diesel-electric designed to run fast, supply electric train heat, and haul time-critical traffic, the class ended up doing a surprisingly wide range of work: parcels and mail, charter trains, inter-city substitute diagrams, sleeper portions, "Thunderbird" rescue duties, and the occasional appearance on prestige turns such as the British Royal Train.

In the British scene it sits in an awkwardly interesting slot. It is not a heavy dragger like a Class 66, and it is not a purpose-built passenger locomotive in the old Type 4 mould either. Instead, the Class 67 is a modern, export-style EMD product tuned for speed, fitted with Electric Train Supply (ETS), and packaged for Britain’s tight loading gauge. It is, bluntly, a locomotive built for a market that was already changing.

Thirty locomotives were built for English Welsh & Scottish Railway (EWS) between 1999 and 2000, numbered 67001–67030, and they remain a small but recognisable class with a disproportionately busy afterlife.

Background: why EWS wanted the Class 67

The late 1990s freight railway had a very specific problem: high-speed mail and parcels. Royal Mail traffic needed locomotive haulage that could run at passenger timings, keep schedules overnight, and work reliably on busy main lines. EWS had Class 47s and other older traction, but the business logic pointed toward a newer, standard design that could do the job with fewer failures and less workshop time.

EWS therefore ordered 30 locomotives via Angel Trains in a contract widely reported at around £45 million, intended primarily as Class 47 replacements for fast Royal Mail services and other speed-sensitive work. The locomotives were specified with a high design speed and with ETS so they could also haul passenger coaching stock, giving flexibility if traffic patterns changed.

That flexibility turned out to be prophetic. Within a few years, the dedicated high-speed mail market had shifted. Royal Mail’s rail operations were reorganised, contracts changed, and the classic locomotive-hauled mail trains were no longer the guaranteed core work they had been ordered for. The Class 67s then did what well-specified locomotives do when the market moves: they went looking for new employment.

Design and construction: an EMD export locomotive in British clothing

Although the Class 67 carries a British TOPS classification, it is very much part of EMD’s export lineage. The EMD model designation is JT42HW-HS.

The locomotives were built by Alstom at Meinfesa in Valencia, Spain, with core traction components supplied by General Motors’ Electro-Motive Division (EMD)—a hybrid procurement typical of the era: European bodyshell and bogie design married to an American heavy-diesel traction package.

Key design features include:

• Bo-Bo wheel arrangement: four axles, all powered, on two bogies.
• Monocoque bodyshell: a load-bearing structure rather than a body sitting on a heavy main frame.
• Central driving position: a cab layout that differs from some older British designs.
• High-speed gearing: the locomotive was designed around fast running, not purely heavy haulage.
• Electric Train Supply (ETS): allowing the class to supply power for coach heating, lighting, and air-conditioning.

One practical technical point often mentioned in comparisons is the traction motor arrangement. The Class 67 shares family resemblance with the Class 66 in its EMD DNA, but it differs in details aimed at higher-speed running. Its traction motors are commonly described as frame-mounted rather than axle-hung, reducing unsprung mass and helping stability and track friendliness at speed. In other words: it was engineered with passenger timings in mind.

Technical outline: what a Class 67 is on paper

A Class 67 is a diesel-electric locomotive with an EMD two-stroke V12 prime mover:

• Prime mover: EMD 12N-710G3B-EC
• Power output: commonly quoted around 3,200 bhp at the engine
• Design speed: 125 mph

The class is also equipped with standard UK safety and train protection systems (AWS/TPWS, with provision in some contexts for ETCS), and multiple working compatibility with a number of other modern diesel classes using AAR-style control systems.

Two speed figures tend to appear in discussion: the design speed (125 mph) and the permitted operating speed in typical UK service. In practice, Class 67s have often been limited below their headline design capability depending on route, train formation, and operational approvals. This is why you will see them spoken about as "125 mph capable" but more commonly encountered running at lower maximum speeds in everyday traffic.

The original job: high-speed mail

The Class 67’s intended flagship duty was hauling high-speed Royal Mail trains. This was not glamour work, but it was high-value: overnight schedules, tight timings, and a need for reliability. For a brief period, that was the class’s main reason for existing.

As mail traffic patterns changed, the class pivoted. The locomotives were too new to scrap and too capable to waste. Operators began to use them where they made economic and operational sense: passenger charter work, sleeper-related duties, and specialist passenger diagrams where ETS and decent speed mattered.

Passenger use: the locomotive that found itself on coaching stock again

The Class 67 became, almost by accident, one of the modern era’s most common locomotives for coaching stock duties outside the main inter-city fleets.

Charter and special trains

The class has been widely used on charters because it can supply ETS and operate at respectable speeds on the main line. For charter operators, those two points matter: passengers expect a modern environment in the coaches, and paths on a busy railway are easier to obtain if the train is not limited to slow timings.

Sleeper and portions

Class 67s have also been associated with hauling portions of sleeper services on non-electrified sections. The logic is straightforward: a locomotive that can provide ETS and keep to passenger timings is a useful tool where diesel traction remains necessary.

Franchise-era passenger diagrams

Perhaps the most visible "proper passenger" use was on operators that ran locomotive-hauled rakes in the modern era, where the 67’s ETS and speed potential fitted the job. Chiltern Railways, for example, made extensive use of Class 67s on locomotive-hauled services (often with Mark 3 coaches and a Driving Van Trailer), creating one of the more distinctive passenger operations of the post-privatisation period.

The class was also used on other open-access or niche passenger operations where locomotive haulage and a coherent coaching-stock set were commercially or operationally attractive.

The Royal Train: prestige work for a small sub-fleet

A small number of Class 67s became associated with the British Royal Train, most notably 67005 and 67006, which have carried the appropriate royal liveries and names in various periods.

This work is not about raw power. It is about reliability, compatibility with coaching stock, and the ability to run smoothly and predictably on a network where failure is not an option. The Royal Train association gave the class a public profile that far exceeded its small fleet size.

Thunderbirds, rescue, and "useful to have around"

Modern timetables are tight, and modern fleets are generally reliable—until they are not. When a high-profile passenger train fails on a main line, you need rescue power quickly.

Class 67s have been used as rescue locomotives (often nicknamed "Thunderbirds" in the UK context) because they combine good route capability with adequate speed and the ability to haul passenger stock. The exact deployments have varied by region and operator arrangements, but the underlying reason is consistent: if you keep a small pool of capable diesel locomotives available, you can prevent one failure turning into a network-wide mess.

This is the quiet, uncelebrated side of the class’s career. A rescue locomotive is rarely famous when it works, and very noticeable when it is not available.

Fleet and ownership: small class, long service

The class was built as 30 locomotives, numbered 67001–67030. Over time, ownership and operator arrangements changed, but the broad picture in recent years has been:

• DB Cargo UK (the successor to EWS/DB Schenker) as the principal operator and owner of most of the fleet.
• A small number sold or transferred to other operators, notably Colas Rail and Transport for Wales in limited cases.

Because it is a small fleet, individual locomotives have often had quite distinct careers: long periods in traffic, then storage; repainting and repurposing; or allocation to specialist duties. As with most modern locomotives, the class has also seen its share of incidents and withdrawals. Notably, at least one member of the class has been scrapped in the 2020s, reflecting the reality that small sub-fleets are vulnerable when major overhauls are due and the commercial case for investment weakens.

Nicknames and reputation: "Skips" and the Class 67’s public face

The Class 67’s common nickname, "Skips", is part fleet folklore and part public shorthand. Nicknames can turn into mythology; the sober point is that the class became recognisable because it was frequently used on visible passenger and charter work, even though it is a freight-operator locomotive by origin.

Operationally, the class’s reputation tends to be framed around three traits:

1. Capable at passenger timings compared with many freight-oriented diesels.
2. ETS-fitted, making it genuinely useful on coaching stock.
3. Small fleet size, which makes availability and spares strategy more brittle than for mass classes like the 66.

What makes the Class 67 distinctive in UK traction history

The Class 67 is distinctive not because it was the most powerful or most numerous locomotive of its era, but because it illustrates a particular late-1990s logic:

• Freight operators wanted modern, standard traction.
• The market for certain traffics (especially mail) was already shifting.
• A locomotive specified for speed and ETS could survive that shift by moving into passenger-adjacent niches.

In short: it is a locomotive built for a traffic flow that declined, yet kept in employment because it was specified cleverly enough to be redeployed.

Summary

The British Rail Class 67 is a class of 30 Bo-Bo diesel-electric locomotives built in 1999–2000 by Alstom (Meinfesa, Valencia) to EMD’s JT42HW-HS design, numbered 67001–67030. Ordered by EWS primarily for high-speed mail work, the class combined a modern EMD traction package with 125 mph design capability and Electric Train Supply, allowing it to pivot into passenger and mixed duties when the mail market changed. In service, Class 67s became closely associated with locomotive-hauled passenger operations, charter work, sleeper-related duties, rescue roles, and a small number of prestige turns including the British Royal Train. Small in fleet size but broad in employment, the Class 67 remains one of the more operationally adaptable modern British diesel classes.