92031 The Institute of Logistics and Transport EWS
One of the most popular releases from our first run was EWS maroon and gold liveried No. 92001 Victor Hugo so with only two locomotives ever repainted in this scheme we are pleased to reveal the other version, No. 92031 The Institute of Logistics and Transport. While the former was given the new English Welsh & Scottish Railway identity ahead of the Toton Open Day in August 1998, the latter was given its makeover ahead of its soon-to-be namesake’s annual conference at the Metropole Hotel, near the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, in June 2001. Incredibly, the operator moved the 126-tonne Class 92 from Tyseley to the hotel’s car park by road for the dedication event, which finally saw the locomotive named, it being the only member of the class to miss out on gaining its original allocated identity, in this case Schiller. Like its forebear, No. 92031 also saw its Channel Tunnel roundels repositioned to line up with the base of the ‘gold’ stripe, but in a welcome change a standard cast nameplate was applied instead of transfers. It soon settled back into a varied selection of freight duties anywhere between Dollands Moor and Mossend, and was even a popular choice for railtour duties which took it to locations such as the then unfamiliar London Euston as well as the Great Eastern Main Line to Harwich Town. This locomotive was also involved in trials in February 2010 using Cargo-D’s blue/grey Wrexham & Shropshire-branded Mk.3 set as a proof of concept for the class to take over the Anglo-Scottish sleeper services, which would eventually take place under the aegis of GBRf in April 2015. Somewhat surprisingly with locomotives still running around in their as-delivered grey it was repainted into DB Schenker colours in November 2011 and lost its nameplates at the same time. After three and a half more years of service it was stored in June 2015 and has been become one of the Crewe ‘Christmas Trees’ for component recovery ever since.