ROMANIA: DB Cargo UK has announced a multi-million-pound deal to sell 25 surplus EMD Class 66 diesel locomotives previously used in the UK to Romanian private freight operator Grup Feroviar Român.
They locos will be reinstated to current UK operational standards and repainted blue before being send to Romania. The first (66014) is expected to leave DB Cargo UK’s traction maintenance depot at Toton at the end of January, with all 25 to be delivered by mid-2028.
The sale forms part of DB Cargo UK’s ongoing optimisation of its fleet. ‘These locomotives are surplus to DB’s requirements and will still leave ample locomotives in our fleet to meet predicted traffic growth in future years’, said its newly-appointed Engineering Director Wayne Miller on January 19. ‘We are proud to be reinstating the locomotives at our centre of excellence in Toton, and look forward to further developing this partnership.’
GFR is the flagship operator of Grampet Group, which has around 380 locos, 16 500 wagons and operations in Romania, Germany, Bulgaria, Hungary, Croatia, Moldova, Serbia, Greece, Slovenia and North Macedonia.
GFR Chairman Sorin Chinde said acquiring the Class 66 locos ‘aligns with Grampet Group’s strategy of investing in high-performance rolling stock that enhances our operational efficiency’, and they would become the ‘backbone’ of its diesel fleet.
‘The replacement of the current LDE 2100 locomotive fleet, used for diesel traction, was necessary due to the rising maintenance costs of the existing fleet, caused by their age and the increasing difficulty of sourcing spare parts’, he said. ‘The superior power characteristics and high availability of the Class 66 locomotives will allow us to withdraw from service a larger number of 2 100 hp locomotives than the number of units purchased from DB Cargo UK.’
