The Locomotives duties include, marshalling container trains within the container base and hauling the 24 bogie vehicles approximately 2 miles to the national network exchange sidings. The locomotive is operated 24 hours a day and usually handles 10 full round trips in this period. As with many other Hunslet contracts this locomotive has been supplied with full service and after sales support including 24 hour call out and guaranteed attendance of engineers in the case of a breakdown. In support of the class 08 an additional locomotive is provided on site as a standby, which in this case is a 350 HP 0-6-0 Barclay 660 (Emily) of 1982.
Hunslet Engine Company is actively seeking to expand its current fleet of hire locomotives, acknowledging that to do this we must move away from solely supplying Industrial type locomotives in order to meet the requirements of several potential clients. With the backing of its parent company LH Group Services Limited, Hunslet Engine Company has purchased this first 08 and we are currently establishing a support facility for this and future locomotives. LH Groups Engine Overhaul division has a wealth of experience overhauling the 08’s English Electric Engines and with the other companies within the group such as LH Group Wheelsets the main of the support is already in place.
In setting up the support facility for our own locomotive we will also be able to provide existing users of the Class 08 an alternative supplier for procuring spare parts and the overhaul of major component.
