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...

'Deltic' D9000 With Virgin Trains

"And as the summer of '99 drew to a close, early signs began to suggest that Virgin's future imperative for hiring 'Deltics' might be heading for the buffers."

1999 was the summer you didn't want to end, and this was one of the reasons why. 'Deltic' D9000 arrives at Coventry with its weekly 12:10 Ramsgate - Glasgow Virgin CrossCountry service.

It was such an optimistic time. The notion of a 'Deltic' returning not just to the main line, but to regular service passenger trains, was one that no enthusiast seriously contemplated when British Rail withdrew the type from traffic at the start of 1982. But the late 1990s would see D9000 Royal Scots Grey play a starring role in the early history of Virgin Trains. Although the loco - then owned by Deltic 9000 Locomotives Limited (DNLL) - powered a variety of services for Virgin, it's most famous for its weekly trips from Birmingham to Ramsgate and back, throughout the summers of '98 and '99.

Info-Pictorial: Virgin Trains Electrics, Loco-Hauled - 1997 to 2007

"A lot of people didn't realise it was a heritage repaint, such was the continued familiarity with original IC Class 86/2s in the early noughties."

86228 Vulcan Heritage at Birmingham International with the 16:21 Wolverhampton – Euston, on Friday 13th September 2002.

If ever you need an illustration of the indifference enthusiasts showed Virgin Trains' native electric locomotives in the late 1990s, just flick through a handful of period railway magazines. There was very little mention of the Virgin electric locos across the broader railway press of '97 to '99 – unless the locos switched pools, or failed and were rescued by freight traction. And finding an actual photo of a Virgin 86, 87 or 90 in those period mags is an extraordinary challenge. There just wasn’t the demand.

Info-Pictorial: The Virgin Trains HSTs – 1997 to 2002

"The final coaching stock rake to wear InterCity livery was set XC63, which received its Virgin red repaint in November 2000."

43078 in a classic late '90s mixed livery scene.

There are probably not that many rationales that can justify living in Birmingham as a stroke of good fortune. But as the epicentre of Virgin CrossCountry, New Street station gave trainspotters optimum access to Britain’s largest realm of HST and loco-hauled passenger service between 1997 and 2002.

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.

The Introduction of the Virgin Voyagers

"The first UK sighting of the Voyager’s now familiar front end came on 6th July 2000... Five months later to the day, a high-profile and ceremonious outing for 220001 set out to woo the press."

220003 imposes at Birmingham New Street in the year of introduction - 2001. Class 47, No. 47793, is representative of the outgoing stock.

Back in the mists of March 1998, an eyecatching edition of RAIL magazine appeared on the newsagents’ shelves. The cover featured two artist impressions of futuristic-looking trains, and a headline alluding to a £1.85bn order for new Virgin passenger stock. The larger of the two images documented what was believed, at the time, to be the external design of the Bombardier DEMU which would serve the CrossCountry network. The DEMU was not, at that point, described as a ‘Voyager’, it did not look like a Voyager, and Virgin had a different plan for CrossCountry from the one that eventually came to fruition.

The CrossCountry HSTs

"...All but one had been Virgin CrossCountry power cars before the introduction of the Voyagers, and so were really just returning to old haunts."

In 2003, when Virgin Trains announced that their use of HSTs on CrossCountry had come to an end, it looked as though more than two decades of regular IC125 service over the network had passed into history for good.

Demand for the 1970s design icons did, however, persist, and for the next few years Virgin drafted in HSTs on short-term hire to extend capacity when required. But when Arriva won the new CrossCountry franchise in summer 2007, they pledged that the HST would return to daily operation on XC routes. A new era was about to begin for the vintage-yet-still-modern classic. MTU-engined Class 43s in the distinctive late noughties XC livery would become a familiar sight, and remain so for over a decade…