WITH all usable parts now removed, No. 56106 has been removed from Leicester LIP for final disposal. It was one of the first inmates at the newly reactivated UK Rail Leasing depot, just north east of Leicester station, after moving there in December 2013, along with Nos. 56007, 56031, 56069 and 56081.
All five were acquired by GB Railfreight in June 2018 as raw materials for the Class 69 project. The unlucky Type 5 is the only member of the quintet not to have been reactivated, with the remainder all back in traffic either still as Class 56s (No. 56081) or Class 69s (Nos. 56007 – now 69005, 56031 – now 69001 and 56069 – now 69004).
Built at BREL Doncaster in April 1982, the Loadhaul-liveried ‘Grid’ was eventually taken out of UK service in January 2004, later joining the Fertis fleet in France for LGV construction work between May 2005 and June 2007. Sold to EMR for scrap in December 2011 it was ‘saved’ by UKRL in September 2013. Since 2017 its defining feature was its ‘open air’ cab design at
