Class 60 - Brilliant but Flawed

My only experience of the class 60... right at the tail_end of working on the railways in the UK I caught a ride into Healey Mills for a train I was recrewing there, anyway the locomotive door was lower than anything we had at the time and I whacked my head leaving the cab and ended up flat first on the ballast with a cut forehead... needless to say everyone else found it hilarious.... Thus not a fan of the class 60!

Ironic that the 60 has been more or less out-survived by at least one of the locos it was designed to replace...the 37 is still in great demand.

When they work, they’re great to drive. Quiet, comfortable and can pull pretty much anything they want. And if you listen to one with the window open, they make a good noise too. I enjoy driving them at any rate.

Love the class 60s absolutely awsome machine they have a face like a 1950s tinplate robot..... a class 60 on tanker duty is a sight to behold on our network.... RIP you wonderful 60s rotting away at Toton Depot 🙏🙏🙏

It's such a shame that the UK doesn't have any truly British owned train manufacturing companies of note anymore, but looking at our history of unreliability it's no surprise really. At least we still have factories, even if they're owned by the French, Germans, Spanish and Swiss.

The final summary is ironic given that DB Cargo have just announced this week that they are withdrawing their remaining Class 60's and re-gearing a handful of Class 66's to provide better haulage capabilities.

In 1989/90 I worked as a contract design draughtsman on the bogie section at Brush Traction. The workload was Class 60, Channel Shuttle Tri Bo and a Bo-Bo for Morocco. The Class 60 had its problems. The rolling rubber ring for axle location soon failed on the test track at Old Dolby. A guide post design, like HST, was almost ready to go and introduced. The alternator cooling was another huge problem with sheet metal ducting added to vent the hot air thro’ the roof panels. I left when 60019 had just been completed. No prototypes is always risky.

I was trained on these in late '89 , and worked 'em until 2017. Only ever failed once with them , and then only due to the exceptionally wet early winter of '98. Water had found it's way thru' the roof and into the electronic cubicle at 2 end , and did it's stuff with the electrix. Mind you, that wet season really was something else. Peak Forest looked like a canal outside the messroom , you couldn't see any sign of rails , just a flowing waterway , and the gradient there is around 1 in 90 , not flat . t he fuel road also collapsed into a sinkhole , too. If I coulda had my way, I'd have liked the cab layout of a 66 , for comfort , and the quietness of the 60 , and the ride quality of 'em was/is in another league entirely. Very, very capable machines. 'Does not contain GM ingredients '!

An old and very valued friend of mine was a driver at 'MingMing', 40B in the days of both the class 60's and the new order, the class 66's. Apparently they undertook some trials when the new order '66's arrived and shared the Immingham (MingMing) iron ore trains up Santon Bank into the 'Scunny Steel Works' for unloading. However, apparently, the 66's failed to get a grip on the rails in some trials to get into the steelworks complex but the class 60's, whilst taking their time. Walked it!

The greatest hope I think of the class 60 is if a new power unit, such as whatever they’re putting in the class 99, and new control setup could be fitted. That would mean there’s a lot of existing locomotive frames likely available for cheap, and potentially a solid platform to put into service.

Another informative & entertaining video, Mr MacV. It's worthy of note that there are around 3 times as many 37s still in service as there are class 60s. Shame, as the 60s were/are mighty but flawed machines. You summed them up perfectly in your video. PS: As an ex-pat South Wales Valleys Boy, the shot of a 37 passing Taff Merthyr Colliery (probably en-route from the recently closed Cwmbargoed washery a few miles north of the pit to the also closed Aberthaw power station) at 2.55 was most welcome!

Another informative documentary as always. The sad truth is that you simply cannot wait 30-35 years for a new locomotive design to finally deliver on its promise and deliver. Thank heavens that the Class 59 and then the 66 were available "out of the box" (although the Class 70 hasn't done too badly either...) Thanks for the research - appreciated.

And now the curtains drawn on a fine engine class. They broke the monotony of 66s through Meadowhall, and 60024 was my last at Doncaster during Storm Ciaran.

Interesting story. For me all alarm bells were going off when I heard the condition to deliver the first examples within a year. So previous designs fell through on poor availability, and a completely new design is going to solve all that without any time at all to do a form of testing? Any decent engineer can tell you that's not going to work. This why politics and engineering don't go together. Judge a product on its merits and leave politics aside.

hi, great video. i remember the first class 59 in west london southall as was in southall dept with the GWPG, the new loco was amazing and had a bell on it like the John Wayne style of locos.we could not believe what we were seeing. great video often went to Brush works when working for London transport,[ train wheels etc]

Lovely to see so many of your video shots included.

I did a few years on p-way, when a 60 is under load you can hear them miles away even better on a quiet night! I live not far from Toton and walk along the bank often hopefully a few more will make it out alive.

Thanks for another interesting and well done video, my friend.

Excellent, detailed, concise presentation on Class 60 history. Well done.

Years ago I had a 60 pull a Cross Country passenger train north from New Street but they kept the crippled 47 on it to provide ETH.I always think that 60's and 92's look very similar and unless you see the top with the electric equipment it can be difficult to tell them apart.