Why were these engines called the ‘Red Death’?

They transformed the freight industry when they first appeared.

But their introduction earned them a rather unfortunate nickname. With that being said -

Why were these engines called the ‘Red Death?’

#class66 #diesel #ews #dbcargo #freightliner #freight

[TurboTel]

Yes, they killed off a lot of mixed traction, but they also somewhat saved freight by making it more cost effective

[drewzero]

I don't know much about EWS but I always loved the same livery on Wisconsin Central, my childhood local railroad. When I found out WC owned EWS it blew my mind!

[aaronmachon]

Kew they were called sheds, but never knew they were called red death!

[crepello]

"Red Death"? Who has ever heard of them being called this? New to me!

[irishengine]

I don't understand why people would dislike a locomotive that replaced their favourite locomotives? It's just part of the industry, "out with the old, in with the new."

[MattNav]

Another quirk of the class 66 is that they've also been used here in mainland Europe. Here in the south of France, over by the freight depot of Miramas, Class 66 locos can often be spotted amongst the regular SNCF freight sets.

[OfficialSEICK]

It's unfortunate to see old locomotives go but you gotta keep upgrading if you want to survive

[tylerhepper]

Was not expecting a cheeky bit of UB40! And about the loco, I certainly am a fan :)

[theitalianpigeon]

i love the 66, that and the 68. both sound and look amazing

[gerardmichaelburnsjr.]

I rode once on a train pulled by the Carlos Antonio Lopez, in Paraguay. Acquired by Paraguay in the 1850s, it was still in regular service in the 1980s. You can still see it in the railway station in Asuncion although there are no trains in Paraguay anymore.

[php]

British Engine with an EMD heart. They sound so sweet

[racingraptor]

In Poland (thanks to Freightliner PL) they are known as, ,Mamut" which means Mammoth. They are the most powerful locomotives used on Polish tracks.

[johnrafferty]

Funny to thinknthat some of the classes they came to replace are still out there.

[TheSudrianTerrier]

And hopefully they’ll continue to operate for many years to come

LONG LIVE THE SHED!

[Electrostarboi]

There is a video of one of them pulling M.O.D carriages across Shoeburyness high street

I find the video very interesting despite the quality and photos of the occasion can be found on flickr

[BritishRail]

EMD is probably the locomotive version of Scania trucks. EMD tried to enter the UK market back in the 1960's as they wanted to make a UK loading gauge locomotive or collaborate with UK locomotive makers by offering the EMD 567 for smaller locomotives like then Hymek, Class 31, Class 33 etc but at the time, no one was interested in EMD because it wasn't British and it was too political back then. But in 1985/1986, EMD got lucky because three private operators of Foster Yeoman, ARC and National Power approached EMD to buy their locomotives that became the Class 59 (technically an SD40-2 squished into a UK loading gauge shell) because none of the three companies were happy with the unreliable UK build locomotives like the Class 56's, Class 31's and the Class 58's were only being delivered to BR 3 years beforehand. The Class 66 has all the technology of the successful SD70 freight locomotive and just like the Class 59 that the Class 66 is based on but with a top light being more prevalent. EMD actually saved rail freight in the UK from going on road that would clog up motorways and stuff.

BR tried to redress reliability problems with a 100 Class 60's because whilst they were good in theory, Even the Class 60's are no where near as reliable as the Class 59's and Class 66's are now. So maybe BR/Brush and EMD should have collaborated together to perhaps make the Class 60 as it looks like today but used EMD traction motors, CPU and the EMD710 power units in those 100 Class 60's instead. Just my two cents on the matter.

[adhdjames]

that windscreen wiper is DYING please replace it.

[snocoelevators]

These go to show how awesome EMDs really are! I wish EMDs led trains down the BNSF Scenic Sub more often than the usual GEVOs
EWS was owned by a Class 1 railroad, being Wisconsin Central, which was bough out by Canadian National

[russellgxy]

Red Death is fairly apt. Not only did they kill off loads of classic diesels from the Modernization era, but they also took up the workloads of several classes which were barely run-in. Still, hard to go wrong with an EMD, and the success of these engines actually gave some other classes new leases of life with the 57’s and 69’s

[eki]

I've seen them in northern Germany, and an austrian rail operator (LTE) was looking at them, when buying new locos.
😢 but too much noise in the cab and the cab pretty small due to the british shape.
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿👀 my first thought was, it's looking like an aluminium profile...