Colas to Reduce Class 56 Usage

[Rail Quest]

There was a previous speculative thread about the future of Colas 56 fleet: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/colas-class-56-issues-possible-future.270021/

However, after already withdrawing a few members of the fleet, Rail Magazine are reporting that Colas have now confirmed that:

Colas Rail has stood down two of its ten Class 56s from traffic (56087/096), and has confirmed that the fleet is likely to be progressively run down this year.

Source: https://www.railmagazine.com/news/f...ention-to-reduce-use-of-class-56s-during-2025
[Link directs to Rail Magazine article discussing running down of Class 56 fleet]

This thread can be for tracking the status of the fleet as their usage declines and, presumably, further withdrawals take place.

Locomotive	Status
56049	In Service
56051	In Service
56078	In Service
56087	Withdrawn
56090	In Service
56094	In Service
56096	Withdrawn
56105	In Service
56113	In Service
56302	In Service

 

[D365]

Loss of bitumen traffic and also coming up to F exams, I believe?

As per the speculative thread, 087 is no surprise, it’s been stopped for several years now.

Do we use the speculative thread to speculate on their future?

 

[Rail Quest]

Do we use the speculative thread to speculate on their future?

Yeah I think that sounds sensible, then we can keep this thread to updates only

 

[Western 52]

They were using these locos on the Baglan Bay to Chirk timber trains, but these don't seem to have run for a while.

 

[trainmania100]

Seems the 56 on halling wasn't very long lived. I guess it was while the 66s were on RHTT up north.