Adrian Barr
Member
If you zoom in on this 2023 photo, there is an address for Land Recovery on the side of the wagon. Combined with the absence of markings for a leasing firm, it strongly suggests these 30 JNA-Z wagons (built at Shirebrook by WH Davis) were owned by Land Recovery at the time, rather than hired from a third party.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/thesilkmoth/52684498962/
For comparison, this Cappagh-branded JNA has details for VTG (the actual wagon owner) clearly displayed on it:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/trevor-plackett/52531859788/
During the rebranding of Aggregate Industries to Holcim (the parent company) in March 2025, the Land Recovery name was retained, with the corporate identity becoming "Land Recovery Ltd, A member of Holcim" as seen on their website where the wagons are prominent: https://landrecovery.co.uk/
At the time of the rebrand, "Land Recovery Rail" was mentioned separately as "Land Recovery Rail Limited, A member of Holcim" and the website mentions "our rail plant" with a picture of an on-track-machine with "Land Recovery Rail" branding.
Just found a reference to "our fleet of road and rail wagons" on the website in the section about aggregates, which suggests they still own them.
https://landrecovery.co.uk/our-services/aggregates-recycling/
It's not inconceivable the wagons could be sold on to a company like VTG and leased back, but I think Holcim still own some of their former Bardon fleet (AI 27xxx wagons) so have previous history owning wagons.
Getting back on topic to the class 60s, it appears that DBI was a separate company within Land Recovery before the sale, with the original name "Land Recovery Rail and Civils" being changed to DBI shortly after the sale of Land Recovery to Aggregate Industries. Judging from the Land Recovery website, it appears that most of the "Rail and Civils" business was included in the sale to Aggregate Industries (the on-track plant and wagon fleet for example), but as per post #476, Companies House info shows the "Rail and Civils" part of Land Recovery remained a separate business under private control and was renamed DBI (then ESH), with an office address at Radway Green which also happens to be the location of the 60s.
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/14888129
Compared to the active wagon fleet, it seems less likely that Holcim would be interested in owning a fleet of stored class 60s, so I suspect that while Aggregate Industries bought most of the assets from the Land Recovery "Rail and Civils" part of the business, the 60s were retained in this part of the company which wasn't sold, becoming DBI and then ESH.
So basically I agree with the previous posts that it seems likely (but unconfirmed) that ESH own the 60s stored at Radway Green, but we'll see...
