HOW THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION STARTED

摘要

When British Rail agreed in the mid-1980s that Foster-Yeoman could provide its own locomotives on stone trains between Somerset and London, little could anyone have predicted the chain of events that would unfold. Foster-Yeoman (FY) wanted locos that could haul very heavy loads without the need for double-heading. The company also wanted a reliability factor of 95 per cent - something the Class 37s, 47s and 56s provided by BR were simply not achieving. In fact, the poor performance of pairs of Class 56s on 3,800-ton trains was threatening FY's business reputation, with deliveries of aggregates frequently arriving late. The haulier wanted 3,300hp locos with extremely high tractive effort, but nothing like that existed in Britain at the time and although BR was considering the building of such a fleet, FY couldn't afford to wait.