Anyone who has followed my blog here will know that my layout is very much DB and electric traction.
Sadly, in the real world, DB have chosen to retire, withdraw and either sell of scrap its Class 90 fleet.
The less said about this, the better, so, what does this mean for me ? nothing, from a modelling perspective.
One can always model what they wish to, whilst reflecting that I am modelling the real world, as near as possible, I am opting to interject an element of creative licence, my backstory to Johnson Street is one of DB chosing to invest in their electric traction, in the same way their rivals Freightliner who have done so, the backstory, with Team Red, having secured a new long term contract with MALCOLM, a new contract with Network Rail for electric usage and having put their active Class 90s through a knowlege sharing exercise with Freightliner around a reliability study, looking at how Freightliner's 90s having been performing and the relatively few breakdowns.
With the 90s having been stood down for a while whilst this study was undertaken and the Class have a thorough examination schedule including some serious testing over some of their previous catchpoints like Shap and Beattock. With DB also deploying 66s at Mossend Maritime as shunters for the WHM load and the twelve strong fleet being now signed off for work, they have been out working on WHM, most recently at Key Model World live, with DB Blue (90034) and Bumblebee1 (90026) busy all weekend long without any problems.
In light of this work, DB have taken to deploying more 90s on other intermodal work between the London Gateway and Trafford Park, the DB90s picking up the service from Wembley, 66s being deployed from the Gateway to Wembley till the necessary electrification is done there.
All this extra work, means that more red Skodas are being deployed out of Johnson Street IEMD.
With DB in the good habit of reliverying the Class with a diverse livery array, Backbone, Donald Malcolm, Christine, and of course Malcolm, it was down to the team at Johnson Street to determine the next new red Skoda to arrive at Johnson Street with 90040 in DB minus Schenker having undergone a period of testing ahead of a return to traffic, the identity of the Skoda being kept top secret, even down to giving enthusiasts a sneek peak before an official launch invitation with enthusiasts at the specialist facility.
With DB having ordered slightly too much green paint at Toton for 66004, another climate hero in the offing was always going to a possibility, and what better to paint a Climate hero livery on a Climate Hero loco. 90040 in Climate Hero has arrived, on 0Z90 from the Anglia TMD(e) paint facility along with DB red classmate 90035, in a weathered state to reflect its regular workings since returning to Intermodals following the GWML and MML testing work.
Backstory to the arrivals.
One of the first DB90s I had was of Sir William McAlpine (90028), often nicknamed on my YT as ''Bill'', well, Bill was always the Grandad of my DB90s being one of the first into Team Red colours and so when Bachmann came along to do their first DB90, of course, it ended up being Bill. When, earlier this year, I managed to pick up a new Bill for a song, a snip - the immediate question was going to be, what are we to do with Old Bill now we have New Bill. The decision was made, Old Bill would get a new identity and the most logical was 90035, which, like Multimodal and Bill wears DB Cargo red, but isnt named.
90035 has been weathered to reflect it's real world service on both Malcolm and electrification testing on the GWML and MML prior, seen below on WHM prior to withdrawal:
The second conundrum was that of 90036 in DB minus Schenker, named Driver Jack Mills, nicknamed Jack. When i had commissioned 90036, Jack had taken a somewhat scruffy appearance, maybe slightly too much, and when the opportunity to snap up a Squirrel Rail Jack came along, this was taken, so again, like Bill, what to do with Old Jack, now new Jack had arrived. Yes, there are still a few other standard DB90s to be acquired to have a complete fleet, notably 90020 and 90029 in ex-Grand Central and 90021 in Donald Malcolm. So, with the DB90s busy on WHM and new intermodal paths being mapped out for impending DB90 workings, like Trafford Park - Wembley, Trafford Park - Four Ashes IRFT, what better than to have the traction and the expertise ready for this as DB do - with the Class perfect for such work. 90036 has subsequently has received a new identity in 90040, but this time, into DB Cargo's Climate Hero livery, recently seen on 66004, but more importantly, first seen on DB Germany division's Vectron Electric locomotive
Thank you to Wolfgang for letting me share his Vectron clip:
A big thank you also to Colin and the team at Rainbow Railways with their persistence to get the branding right to fit the DB90, along with Steve at @railtec-models for the DB logos and also @Squirrel Rail, thank you so much for all your help, as always.
The decals have been adapted for 90040, with some subtle differences to 66004 - answers in the comments as to what is different, aside from the running number :-)
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