InterCity Class 47s With Virgin Trains

"Most of Virgin's loco-hauled XC runs operated between the North West and the South West, or the North West and the South East."

One of the reasons why so few photographers can assemble quality pictorials recalling the InterCity Class 47/8s in the Virgin CrossCountry era, is simply that in the initial phase of Virgin Trains, IC 47/8s were considered a "waste of a photo". They were the default. And until spring 2000, still responsible for the majority of diesel loco-haulage across the Virgin network. As a facet of the scene that most people had already photographed in the latter days of British Rail, the IC 47/8s were roundly ignored.

But by the late 1990s, regretting missed opportunities to record the mundane as a teenager a decade and a half earlier, I suppose I made the InterCity 47/8s my opportunity to atone for the future. Now that future is upon us. It's time to look back on what was, in its day, a sphere of mundanity, but which now stands as a lesser-documented component of an ebbing era. The era of widespread locomotive passenger haulage.

The Virgin Red Class 47/8s - Identification Guide & Trivia Trove

"Particular areas of variation would include the type of marker light panels, and the number of lamp mounts on the cab fronts."

We all chased the celebrities, but today, even those good old bog-standard Virgin reds look mighty fine. Can you tell them apart though? Identify them in photos without knowing the number? Can you reel off those little bits of trivia that time is fast erasing? Well, if not, you'll certainly be an expert by the end of this post. In an almighty article featuring photos of every single Virgin red 47/8, I'm going to dissect those work-a-day, bread-and-butter ILRA classics like never before...

There are also posts for the InterCity liveried 47/8s and the celebrity liveried 47/8s with Virgin, but in this Virgin red post, each loco has its own heading and photo, beneath which you'll find a Quick ID button and a Details button. If you click or tap those buttons, you'll get information which aims to help uniquely ID the locomotives. Use the Quick ID buttons if you just want a fast means of pinpointing the locos' unique features. If you use the Details buttons, you'll also need to consult the key, which appears at the end of the post and tells you what each letter or symbol in the block stands for. If you're not quite that nerdy, you can ignore the ID and Details buttons, and just enjoy the pics and trivia.

Please note that the ID and detail information is only accurate for the period during which the locos were working for Virgin, in Virgin red livery...

The Class 47/7s with Virgin CrossCountry

"However, Virgin denied that ‘825 was returning, so speculation continued until the 27th, when ‘702 finally went back into store..."

Although diesel locomotive-haulage on the CrossCountry network was inextricably associated with the 47/8s, there were other big contributors to credit. And during the 1997-2002 period in which Virgin ran loco-hauled XC services, the biggest 'other' was unquestionably the 47/7. Here in the blog's fourth article about CrossCountry operations, I'm going to recall the story of the 47/7, fully illustrated, as always.

Class 47/8 Liveries in the Virgin CrossCountry Loco Finale

"In fact, the naming proposal had come before the livery idea... The repaints were only publicised after in-person discussions with Chris Green at the Severn Valley diesel gala on 28th April."

When Virgin Trains finalised its order for an entire fleet of Voyager units in December 1998, diesel locomotive enthusiasts knew that CrossCountry’s theoretical elimination of ex-British Rail stock was now not only a defineable reality, but also a timetabled transition. It was feasible that within three years, locomotive haulage could be eliminated from the XC network, and that was big.

At the time, the Porterbrook-owned Class 47/8s leased by Virgin as the core CrossCountry locomotives, divided into a mix of InterCity swallow and Virgin red/charcoal liveries, with the balance still easily favouring IC. The coaching stock was similarly mixed. The shot of 47812 at the top of the post sums up the era. For an IC/Virgin pictorial see InterCity 47s With Virgin Trains, and for a full Virgin liveried identification pictorial see The Virgin Red 47/8s.

Although the end of the XC 47/8 was now in sight, enthusiasts and photographers had their attentions fixed on higher priorities. For instance, EWS’s ex-BR freight locos were already being made redundant by the incoming Class 66, and were suffering the axe at a shocking rate. In terms of locomotives, the 47/8s were among the least of railfans’ worries.