Hanson Traction Ltd was a locomotive leasing company based at

Washwood Heath Washwood Heath is a ward in Birmingham, within the formal district of Hodge Hill, roughly two miles north-east of Birmingham city centre, England. Washwood Heath covers the areas of Birmingham that lie between Nechells, Bordesley Green, Stec ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

. The company owned thirteen locomotives, consisting of seven class 56s, one class 50 and five class 31s. They were the first company to return class 56 locomotives to mainline use in the United Kingdom after the previous fleet (operated by

Fastline Fastline was created by six railwaymen who undertook a successful management buyout (MBO) of Eastern Track Renewals from British Rail in 1996. In that year they bought Northern Track Renewals from British Rail, and undertook all the studie ...

) was withdrawn in 2008, owing to a decline in traffic levels (specifically the intermodal arm). In October 2010, the company was merged into the operations of British American Railway Services and the locomotives rebranded as part of their Devon & Cornwall Railways fleet with ultimate ownership by

RMS Locotec RMS Looctec is a railway company based in Wolsingham, England. It has specialised in industrial railway management, infrastructure maintenance, and rolling stock leasing; one major customer was its former sister company and rail freight operator ...

, part of the wider group.

History

Hanson Traction was founded by IT entrepreneur Garcia J Hanson in 2006. The company purchased Neil Boden's preserved class 56, BR large logo blue liveried No. 56057 ''British Fuels'' in 2008. The locomotive later became 56311 and was painted into a non-standard yellow & grey colour scheme at the

Railway Technical Centre The Railway Technical Centre (RTC) in London Road, Derby, England, was the technical headquarters of the British Railways Board, and was built in the early 1960s. British Rail described it as the largest railway research complex in the world. Th ...

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...

. Purchase of a second class 56, Load Haul liveried No. 56003 followed shortly afterwards—this became 56312 and was repainted into the Artemis livery which consisted of a purple bodyside, yellow cabs, grey roof and large green ''ARTEMIS'' name complete with squiggly green vinyls. Both of these 56s returned to the mainline in late 2008 and have seen use with

Colas Rail Colas Rail is a railway infrastructure and rail freight company primarily active in the United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of the French industrial group Bouygues. Colas Rail was originally created as ''Seco Rail'', named after its then-pare ...

, having appeared on their Washwood Heath to Immingham & Boston to Washwood Heath steel workings (the former was a short lived trial run),

Dagenham Dagenham () is a town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Dagenham is centred east of Charing Cross. It was historically a rural parish in the Becontree Hundred of Essex, stretching from Hainault Forest ...

to Dollands Moor "Transfesa" trains and Dollands Moor to Hams Hall Norfolk Line container workings. They have also been used on track machine movements and excursion trains from time to time. 56312 was repainted again in October 2011 and wore the same livery as 56311, this being a non-standard grey and yellow colour scheme with 'DCR' (Devon & Cornwall Railways) logos and advertising for the June 2012 Railfest event (DCR being a subsidiary of British American Railway Services, the present owners of Hanson Traction). As of August 2012 the Railfest event logos and advertising have been removed. Two further 56s, No's 56114 and 56128 were also purchased with the view to returning them to the mainline when traffic levels required. However, 56128 has remained in storage at Wansford (

Nene Valley Railway The Nene Valley Railway (NVR) is a preserved railway in Cambridgeshire, England, running between Peterborough Nene Valley and Yarwell Junction. The line is in length. There are stations at each terminus, and three stops en route: Orton Mere, ...

) since 2008 and now appears to have an uncertain future. 56114 has donated its power unit to 56311, and was stripped of usable parts & scrapped in March 2012. D5613 at Eastleigh

Hanson Traction also own class 31s No. 31190 & No. 31602 plus class 50 No. 50008. 31190 has been used mainly on route learning runs for DB Schenker, Network Rail & DCR during 2010 and 2011. 50008 is currently residing at the BARS depot in Washwood Heath where it is undergoing repairs and reinstatement of the vacuum braking & AWS equipment removed for the abortive move to Peru some years ago. It has been repainted into the unique BR "Laira blue" livery, which it carried when it was in service with

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

. 31452 has remained inactive during 2011 after a brief period of hire use with DB Schenker for Network Rail test trains during 2010. Neil Boden's BR blue class 47 No. 47270 ''Swift'' had a short spell with Hanson Traction before he parted ways with the company to form Boden Rail Ltd in early 2010. He had initially joined the company when 56311 (057) was acquired, which he owned and operated at the Nene Valley Railway whilst it was in preservation. Hanson Traction's core depot is the former

Alstom Alstom SA is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer operating worldwide in rail transport markets, active in the fields of passenger transportation, signalling, and locomotives, with products including the AGV, TGV, Eurostar, Avelia ...

facility at

in the West Midlands, which it began using in 2009. In October 2010, the company was purchased by

British American Railway Services British American Railway Services (BARS) was a British locomotive and spot hire company. It was a subsidiary of Iowa Pacific Holdings. The company was established in 2008 to acquire the rail assets of Ealing Community Transport. BARS subsidiar ...

(BARS).BARS acquires Hanson Traction to boost UK portfolio ''Rail'' issue 655 20 October 2010 page 22 The acquisition of Hanson Traction by BARS means that the combined assets now include six class 31s, five class 56s (three operational and two stored, a sixth loco was subsequently scrapped in November 2011) and one class 50, plus a wide variety of coaching stock and other vehicles.

Fleet

References

External links

* {{British Rail Spot Hire Companies British companies disestablished in 2010 British companies established in 2006 Railway companies disestablished in 2010 Railway companies established in 2006 Rolling stock leasing companies