EPR (Europhoenix Rail) - Class 60s

[ExRes]

As information is now pointing to Land Recovery currently having 60063 in the process of undergoing a rebuild at Toton, I thought it might be an appropriate time to have a dedicated thread for them, at this stage there are both solid facts and our old friend speculation

Facts are that LR have 12 Class 60s stored at Radway Green since mid 2024, 012/032/036/037/048/052/068/077/078/084/089/093, these were all long term stored by DB at Toton and all require either full rebuilds or stripping for spares

60063 is one of the batch of 16 Class 60s listed for sale by DB in March 2024, these were -

079 stored in 2015- 063/100 stored in 2021 - 019/039 stored in 2022 - 001/007/010/015/020/040/044/059/065/066/092 stored in 2023

There are quite a number of photos of 60063 on Flickr taken inside the shed at Toton during its aborted maintenance/rebuild for a return to DB service during 2023 & 2024, some of the others in this batch are also pictured indoors with 063

 

[Loadhaul60059]

Fingers crossed there's some truth in this. The 60's are my favourite class of locomotive, so the prospect of some returning to active service is exciting.

Interesting that 063 is the one supposedly being worked on. Thought they might have used one of the ones stored in 2023 as they'd surely need less work.

Is it known yet what Land Recovery plan to use them for?

 

[sprinterguy]

Is it known yet what Land Recovery plan to use them for?

The ballast workings in and out of their site at Longport, replacing Colas class 70s as traction, I believe is a key part of the plan for them.

 

[wickham]

Who is going to man and operate these trains as I don't think Land Recovery is a Freight Operating Company and does it hold a licence to operate?
Will another FOC operate the trains on their behalf like EWS used to do in days gone past for Mendip Rail ?

 

[Harlequinuk]

Who is going to man and operate these trains as I don't think Land Recovery is a Freight Operating Company and does it hold a licence to operate?
Will another FOC operate the trains on their behalf like EWS used to do in days gone past for Mendip Rail ?

Land Recovery were bought by Aggregate Industries - Formally Foster Yeoman and Hanson Aggregates ; who operate under the FOC of Mendip Rail.

 

[37069]

Land Recovery were bought by Aggregate Industries - Formally Foster Yeoman and Hanson Aggregates ; who operate under the FOC of Mendip Rail.

Not quite right - Hanson is now Heidelberg Materials, very much a competitor of Holcim, parent of Aggregate Industries. Foster Yeoman was sold to AI.

Mendip Rail is currently operated in partnership with Freightliner. Previously it was operated with DB Cargo.

 

[Harlequinuk]

Not quite right - Hanson is now Heidelberg Materials, very much a competitor of Holcim, parent of Aggregate Industries. Foster Yeoman was sold to AI.

Mendip Rail is currently operated in partnership with Freightliner. Previously it was operated with DB Cargo.

To clarify its the rail divisions of the named companies - and my source is

MainlineDiesels.net - Hanson Class 59/1

Mainline diesel locomotives

www.mainlinediesels.net

 

[fgwrich]

Land Recovery were bought by Aggregate Industries - Formally Foster Yeoman and Hanson Aggregates ; who operate under the FOC of Mendip Rail.

Irregardless, all of the 59 fleet are now operated by Freightliner. So unless Heidelberg plan to go it alone as their own FOC, or LR chose to become a TOC, someone will be needed operate them. It wouldn’t surprise me if someone such as Colas or Cappagh / DCR are contracted to operate on behalf of LR / Agg Industries.

 

[Harlequinuk]

Irregardless, all of the 59 fleet are now operated by Freightliner. So unless Heidelberg plan to go it alone as their own FOC, or LR chose to become a TOC, someone will be needed operate them. It wouldn’t surprise me if someone such as Colas or Cappagh / DCR are contracted to operate on behalf of LR / Agg Industries.

Havent Freightliner just been bought by CMA?

 

[Yorkshire09876]

Havent Freightliner just been bought by CMA?

The intermodal business has, but not the heavy haul operation which is what will deal with this sort of traffic.

 

[ExRes]

... someone will be needed operate them. It wouldn’t surprise me if someone such as Colas or Cappagh / DCR are contracted to operate on behalf of LR / Agg Industries.

That could well be the route LR go along, DCR did the proving work to reopen the old Pinnox site and are well experienced with Class 60s, Colas have been operating on their behalf since the Pinnox/Longport site went live but don't operate 60s although that's not much of a problem, DB aren't exactly overflowing with work so perhaps manning could be part of a loco rebuilding agreement and there's an outsider of course, I'm not sure if they have a Freight licence but RailAdventure certainly operate on behalf of others and have some highly experienced drivers, what we need of course is a spy in Land Recovery....

 

[wickham]

Not quite right - Hanson is now Heidelberg Materials, very much a competitor of Holcim, parent of Aggregate Industries. Foster Yeoman was sold to AI.

Mendip Rail is currently operated in partnership with Freightliner. Previously it was operated with DB Cargo.

Complicated int'it !! As mentioned above Foster Yeoman/Mendip Rail have outsourced their train movement operation and I don't think they remain a listed FOC. As also mentioned above it is quite possible that DCR will operate on behalf of Land Recovery, but we shall see.

 

[Harlequinuk]

Move my freight by rail - Network Rail

With a little help from the right partners, your business could access the benefits of sustainable, safe and reliable rail freight.

www.networkrail.co.uk

Freight operating companies​

The operators currently licensed to provide freight services in Britain include:

• Colas Rail
• DB Cargo UK
• DCRail
• Direct Rail Services
• GB Railfreight
• Freightliner Group
• Hanson & Hall Rail Services Solutions
• Harsco
• Loram
• RailAdventure
• Rail Operations UK Limited
• Varamis Rail Ltd
• Victa Railfreight

Logistics companies​

Some logistics companies buy freight train services between inland terminals and act as ‘aggregators’ – subletting space on their trains to other parties. This may be an option if you wish to move containerised goods by rail.


These logistics companies include:

• Russell Logistics
• Malcolm Group

 

[ExRes]

An update on WNXX today, ".... but the sale of Land Recovery to Aggregate Industries brought to a close any existing plans with the Class 60s already bought. It was established that of the twelve Class 60s purchased, some would be weighed in for scrap and parts, while some would have been repaired. You need to keep an eye on DBI (DBI Holdings Ltd) which according to Companies House was previously known as 'Land Recovery Enterprises Ltd'. It's probably safe to say that the persons involved with the original Land Recovery Class 60 project are the same, therefore reference to DBI Class 60s is a possibility"

 

[ic31420]

I think that's is being alluded to there is the Beecroft family have left what was Land Recovery and involved themselves into DBI businesses, Holdings and Logistics. (as well as.a raft of other businesses )

 

[SEtrains]

Does anyone know if the plan is still to get these class 60s active again? These photos make it seem highly unlikely unfortunately.

 

[ExRes]

Recent events have started to cause a warming up of rumours regarding what was known as Land Recovery with the test runs of 60063 this week, although there has been no official announcement of where 063 is actually going people claiming 'to be in the know' are all convinced that it is destined for DBI Rail Limited, a company formerly known as Land Recovery Rail & Civils Ltd until 12th June 2024 and owned by the Beecroft family, the address shown on Gov.UK is White Moss Quarry, Radway Green which, of course, is where the 12 Class 60s are stored

It will be interesting to see quite where it leaves Colas who have been operating the Land Recovery services since the old Pinnox site was reopened and the stored Class 60s

 

[cj_1985]

You're assuming ofcourse that Land Recovery want to be an operator themselves. Could be as simple as wanting their own assets... like Mendip Rail used to, and simply hiring drivers from an external company/FOC

 

[sad1e]

Any ideas on the future of Land recovery's 60's. I know they've rebuilt a few sidings near Longport station , Is that related to this.

 

[ExRes]

With all the hoo-ha regarding the repainting of 60063 it seems an opportune moment to update the ownership details of what was known as Land Recovery

Land Recovery became DBI Rail Ltd on 12th June 2024 after the sale of the majority of the Land Recovery business to Aggregate Industries, on 13th February 2026 DBI Rail Ltd was re-registered as ESH Rail Services Ltd with Daniel Beecroft as the sole Director holding 75% or more of the share ownership, White Moss Quarry, Radway Green continues as the company address, ESH presumably indicates Enviro Skip Hire which is a long term Beecroft family business

So now we wait for an announcement as to the who the new owners of 60063 actually are .......

 

[ExRes]

ESH Rail Services branded and named 'Robert Leech' 60063 working 0719 0Z60 Toton TMD to Longport Down Sidings and due to return later as 1349 0Z63, operating under DB for the present

Looks good in twin grey, some comments have been made about the 'wonky S' on the loco side but none of the photos I've seen this morning actually present the logo 'face on', no ideas or guesses yet as to who Robert Leech is/was, the other notable feature is the retention of the original style light clusters

 

[Loadhaul60059]

Great news, and nice to see 60063 looking good again.

Is it known yet how many they’re going to need to cover the services they operate?

 

[northstaffsman]

Photo of 60063 in Long port sidings

 

[47286Dan]

Not my photo

Dan

Edit; didn’t notice there was an ESH Rail thread

 

[Freightmaster]

Looks good in twin grey, some comments have been made about the 'wonky S' on the loco side...

If you look at the pictures, the design of the 'S' incorporates a pair of arrows,
presumably to represent the recycling aspect of the business.

 

[WesternLancer]

Not my photo

Dan

Edit; didn’t notice there was an ESH Rail thread

very nice to see that

 

[Trainman40083]

Not my photo

Dan

Edit; didn’t notice there was an ESH Rail thread

I recognise Longport Sidings

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 12 May 2026 ==

Great, wonder what its nameplate will be

Robert Leech. He is a family member of the owner.

 

[Loadhaul60059]

Great images! Funny how a two tone grey livery seems to suit them so well.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 12 May 2026 ==

Interesting update on WNXX as well, which states that ESH own the 12 60's at Radway Green as well as the 52 60's currently allocated to the WQDA pool.

The WQDA pool includes 60063, 60082 at Crewe EMD, and the rest are spread out all over the yard at Toton.

 

[DarloRich]

Do we know what services these locomotives will be used for? Assume the ones currently hauled by Colas locomotives out of Stoke.

 

[Dave61]

Not my photo

Dan

Edit; didn’t notice there was an ESH Rail thread

Nice to see them around still, I worked on the Brush site when they were making them (different part of the company), our unit got kicked off the site to a business park whilst they took over our area to manufacture the parts, still remember then trundling past the end of our building.