Yesterday, freight operator Direct Rail Services (DRS) announced that the first Class 68 in DRS livery was presented at the Vossloh production facility in Valencia. Images can be found here: link. Time for a short recap: what's the current status of the Beacon Rail / DRS Class 68 order?

Last month unit 68001 was released from Spain and brought to the Czech Republic. Currently, it's performing dynamic trial runs at the VUZ Velim test facility, which will take about three months. Afterwards, the locomotive will return to Vossloh in Valencia, prior to its delivery to the UK in the second quarter of 2014.

Although we knew that 68002 was under construction for some time, it remained very quiet about this locomotive throughout 2013. Delivery of the locomotive is now scheduled for early 2014: a nice New Year's gift for the UK.

But what about 68003-68015? Well, no information on those yet, but we assume that the construction of those units is well underway. At least a third unit exists in an advanced stage of construction.

(DRS)