Charity charter celebrates Drax’s 50th anniversary

A series of charter trains ran over two days on August 17/18, raising more than £30,000 for charity as part of a special event to commemorate 50 years of Drax Power Station. There were also two locomotive namings in conjunction with an open day at the site.

Between them, the trains - operated by GB Railfreight and promoted by the Branch Line Society - used 17 locomotives from GBRf, DB Cargo, Freightliner, and Locomotive Services Limited.

The ‘Cooling Tower Choppers’ set off from Derby on the Saturday morning behind GBRf’s 69011.

At Leicester, LSL’s 20118 Saltburn-by-the-Sea and 20132 were attached to the other end and ran to Peterborough, where the train reversed again and the ‘69’ headed via the Great Northern/Great Eastern Joint Line to Boultham Junction in Lincoln, where the ‘20s’ then continued to Doncaster Bridge Junction.

The ‘69’ then led into Belmont Yard, where four DB Cargo Class 66s (66006/083/102/162) were added for the shortest of short runs - about a quarter of a mile to please the haulage fraternity on board.

The ‘20s’ then led to Monk Bretton railhead, where access into the site was possible. The ‘69’ returned to train to Sudforth Lane, where the ‘20s’ were detached to allow them to run to Drax for display at the event and to take part in a photo event that evening. The train then reversed and DBC’s 66050/073/190 worked the train into York.

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