In April 2006, General Motors’ Electro-Motive Division was sold to a consortium that included Greenbriar Equity Group and Berkshire Partners. It became Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD).

There were few issues with the 66, with several hundred now in traffic. Early issues with the self-steering bogies had been rectified however many complaints about the driving cabs had been made to union ASLEF. Excessive heat and noise were the main niggles which led to GBRf requesting modifications for its next batch of locomotives, starting with 66708. A new cab layout with wrap around desks, a new drivers seat, improved sound deadening and air conditioning transformed the working environment on these locomotive for divers.

Fastline Freight who had used refurbished class 56’s expanded their operations and required more traction, the obvious choice being to jump on the class 66 bandwagon, they would eventually acquire 6 before their parent companies bankruptcy forced them to close. The 6 locomotives were transferred to DRS. They were among the last examples to be delivered from EMD. In a similar story, Advenza Freight leased four class 66’s in May 2009 at the height of the economic downturn and by October that year Advenza had gone bust and the ‘66s’ were returned to Porterbrook. The final freight to join ‘club 66’ was Colas Rail back in October 2009 to use on intermodal and fly ash trains

From this point on, the history and allocation of class 66’s becomes rather interesting. The standardised nature has seen locomotives swap operators, be renumbered, swap again and so on. EWS sent a number of locomotives to France under the ‘Euro Cargo Rail’ banner – some of which have returned, Freightliner likewise sent a number of locomotives to work for its Polish division (as has DB, the successor to EWS) The success of the Class 66/JT42CWR type didn’t go unnoticed on the world stage, the design has been sought after internationally, with orders going in from across Europe and Egypt, over 650 units have been produced for the worldwide market of which 480 were built for the UK. Not all changes have been exports either, an upturn in traffic for GBRf saw them acquire euro-spec class 66’s and bring them to the UK. This has resulted in many smaller variations to the class as not all euro models were identical, nor retro fitted identically.

The final batch of class 66’s was ordered 10 years ago now, back in 2013 by GBRf. By this stage, production had moved from London, Ontario to Muncie, Indiana. This shift added new variations to some of the body features and the locomotives from this last production differ from all the others. The final class 66 built, 66779, was painted in a special British Railways green livery, mirroring that of the last British Railways steam locomotive built, Evening Star. 66779 was named to match its coal burning counterpart at the National Railway Museum on the 10th of May, 2016 bringing the curtain down on class 66 production worldwide. A gesture made at that unveiling by GBRf CEO, John Smith, was promising the locomotive to the national collection upon its projected withdrawal following its predicted 40 year working life.

Who would have thought 25 years ago, the dreaded shed, the locomotive that EWS foresaw as a game-changer has been exactly that. In over two decades, the type has not seen any significant challenge to its supremacy. The leap of faith taken by the then young EWS company with Ed Burkhardt at the helm paid off and has achieved something that no domestic build locomotive has ever managed to do and spread its success to the continent. Maybe enthusiasts have learned to love a 66, after all there is a whole generation who would know nothing different. Perhaps we should look back with fondness at the dawn of a new era for British rail freight. Not Read Death as they said but Red Revolution.

The Model

When entering the British outline market five years ago, Accurascale were aware of the highly impressive model of the Class 66 that Hattons Model Railways had developed in house and released onto the market. This model received great acclaim, winning numerous awards. In late 2022 a deal was struck between Accurascale and Hattons for Accurascale to take on the Hattons Class 66 tooling, and further enhance the locomotive in running characteristics, detail variation and electronics to match it to the level of the rest of the Accurascale locomotive range. This model will now be a part of the Accurascale range going forwards.

Enhanced features:

• Axle boxes have been redesigned to make them more secure and ensure smooth running (drawing on experience with the IRM A Class)
• Decoder Access has been improved by the provision of a lift off roof section which also reveals the switches for DC operation.
• Enhanced PCB featuring pogo connectors and twin speakers; a sugar cube speaker and Accurathrash bass reflex speaker.
• Lighting revised to provide accurate representation of Day, night and yard mode in all configurations.
• Hall sensor fitted to DCC sound models to automatically activate flange squeal on tighter radii.
• Cab bulkheads and control pedestal are now moulded with details in relief each end is correct with either single or twin entrance door.
• coil springs on the bogie now rotating in the correct direction.
• Cab access step and handrails have been moved from body mount to chassis mount to allow for breakage free access to chassis (for when fitting crew etc).

The tooling suite for the Class 66 was already extensive, allowing for multiple different evolutions across the life of the real locomotives. However, as with doing models “The Accurascale Way”, further modifications have been carried out to add even greater variation to the range, featuring;

• Addition of a second style of cab interior, relevant to the model. Either the original pedestal type cab or later wrap around desk
• Two different types of sandpipe fixture on the bogie; angled or straight.
• Addition of square cut outs guard irons for relevant locos
• Cab Front Handrails now have the option of 5 point or 7 point mounting with correct round profile handrail mounts.
• Tooling for newly imported European spec locomotives currently being developed for future production runs.