This book gives an insight into how Class 66 diesel locomotives have become Britain’s most common freight locomotives since they first arrived in the UK from Canada 25 years ago.

They can now be seen throughout the length and breadth of the country, from Cornwall in the south-west to Fort William and Inverness in the Scottish Highlands, as well as in several European countries.

Published in May 2024 by Amberley Publishing and written by John Jackson, this soft-cover book measures around 16.5 cm x 23.4 cm, and has 96 pages and 180 colour photographs.

Its published price is £15.99, but at the time of writing, it can be purchased for £14.39 from Amberley Publishing and £12.95 from Amazon.

An introduction provides a background to the reasoning behind why an initial order of 250 locomotives was purchased from General Motors in Canada and is followed by chapters covering those class pioneers, and locomotives operated by EWS/DB Cargo, DB Cargo France, Direct Rail Services, Freightliner, GB Railfreight, and Colas Rail.

Conveniently, the numbers of the locomotives follow the same sequence as their operators and the book is arranged largely in locomotive numerical order.

The first 250 of the class were all owned by the English, Welsh and Scottish Railway (EWS), which was established by the American company Wisconsin Central and formed from the acquisition and merger of five of the six freight companies that were sold when British Rail was privatised.

Appropriately, the maroon and yellow livery carried by the EWS locomotives is the same as the locomotives of Wisconsin Central in the USA, but in the 25 years since their introduction, as seen elsewhere in the book, other freight companies have also acquired Class 66s and applied their own liveries.

The pages below show Class 66s in their familiar EWS maroon and yellow livery, which is still a familiar sight on Britain’s freight trains, although the photo at the bottom right showing a Class 66 piloting a Class A4 Pacific steam locomotive is a very rare occurrence.

In contrast to the maroon and yellow livery carried by EWS locomotives, Direct Rail Services locomotives sport a striking blue livery that fits well with block trains of container wagons carrying goods to Tesco supermarkets as seen at the bottom right.

Familiar sights on Britain’s railways are scenes like those below showing block container trains to ports around the country being hauled by Freightliner Class 66s with their distinctive green and yellow livery.

Another striking livery is the blue and gold of GB Railfreight (GBRf) locomotives, as seen in the pages below.

The photo at the bottom left gives the impression that the locomotive is emitting a cloud of steam, but in reality, the steam is from a steam locomotive at the head of a “Jacobite” steam train parked behind the Class 66.

This book shows that there is still plenty of variety on Britain’s railways to maintain the interest of photographers and enthusiasts alike.

From the early days of the Class 66s when it seemed every freight train was hauled by an identical locomotive with EWS branding and maroon and yellow livery, or even branded EW&S as the company was originally called.

As seen in the illustrations in this review, the author has captured examples of this everyday workhorse on many different duties that give a good impression of their everyday use.

Although different operators have their own liveries and sometimes paint their steeds in bespoke branding such as showing support for Ukraine or the NHS, it is unfortunate that the book does not illustrate more of these non-standard liveries.

The captions provide plenty of information about the trains and their cargoes and complement a good standard of reproduction.

Anyone interested in modern traction, especially the Class 66, will find this book absorbing, which merits its rating of 4.5/5.

The book is available to purchase from Amazon and from Amberley Publishing.

We would like to thank Amberley Publishing for providing us with a copy of the book for review.