The second coming of our Class 66 locomotives has certainly piqued the interest among modellers as sales of these ubiquitous beasts have defied even our lofty expectations. 

With a colourful fleet already making up the main range, a hearty mix of squadron liveries and some more exotic special or one-off liveries forming the makeup of the run, we knew we would have to offer something special, something bold, for our exclusive model.

Thankfully, the sheds do make that easy, and we now have a unique opportunity to also unveil our euro tooling enhancements and options as we look to model one of these repurposed machines for the first time in ready-to-run OO format.

So, welcome to the GBRf triple grey celebrity that is 66793!

History

66793 comes under the broad umbrella of what is known to British railway enthusiasts as a “euro class 66”. These locomotives all exhibit differences to the home fleet class 66 that we are familiar with. This locomotive was built in August 2003 for HSBC Rail and leased to ERS Railways (formerly European Rail Shuttle) in the Netherlands and was given their fleet number 6608.

In 2009 the locomotive was acquired by Beacon Rail Leasing and transferred to Heavy Haul Power International (HHPI) where it was repainted, renumbered to 29004 and named “Dave Meehan”. HHPI operated 29004 in Germany until 2020 when they upgraded their fleet to Stadler Euro Dual type locomotives and the class 66 fleet were displaced.

During late 2020, 29004 arrived in the UK at Immingham before transfer to Doncaster Roberts Road depot for conversion to UK spec for the new operators, GBRf. This conversion included changing the profile of the front deflector plates, fitting of UK electrical equipment (and removal of European equipment) plus GBRf standard upgrades to lights and windows. The locomotive retained some of its Euro features such as the twin pipe air system, larger horn box and euro horn notes.

Once conversion was completed the newly registered 66793 was transferred to the paint shop at Eastleigh before being unveiled during March 2021 in its British Rail inspired, triple grey livery complete with construction sector markings. This was done to mark the partnership between GBRf and various customers in the construction sector.

The Model

With more and more euro spec Class 66 locomotives being repurposed for operation in the UK, we felt it was a must to broaden the tooling suite to include these distinctive modifications. As can be seen, areas such as horn covers, buffers, front valance, pipework and other areas have been brought into the fold to make a most convincing "euroshed"; something never done before in 00/4mm scale. 66793 is the first model to showcase the European features and demonstrate the flexibility of our Class 66 tooling suite. 

Coming complete with the full "Accurascale Exclusives" treatment of special presentation packaging and limited edition certificate, 66793 will arrive alongside the rest of our 2nd Class 66 production run in Q2 of 2025.

Pre-Order Your Class 66793 By Clicking Here!