92029 DB Cargo (with Martin House headboard) EXCLUSIVE
Named for Dante Alighieri, the famed Italian writer of the Divine Comedy, which tells the fictional story of the author’s journey through hell, the palindromic No. 92029 Dante was released from Brush at Loughborough in March 1995 for testing but would not be officially allocated to Crewe IEMD until six months later. Like most of its EWS-owned colleagues it was rarely used to its full capabilities and its first decade of action was regularly interrupted by periods of store. In October 2008, by which time it had gained the large EWS sticker, it was sidelined for longer than usual and it didn’t return to an active pool until July 2013, several years after the DB Schenker takeover. In 2013-4 it was also seconded to Direct Rail Services for several stints on the operator’s key intermodal services, while April 2015 saw it stored for its second long time out. In 2016 it had a brush with export as DB lined it up for a transfer to Eastern Europe, although this was subsequently cancelled. Three years later, re-activation work commenced but due to other priorities at its home depot this was not completed until June 2023, and was was the first DB ‘92’ to receive similar interference isolation equipment as fitted to the GBRf examples to allow it to return to the WCML under its own power. Following the completion of several test runs it ran to Toton for a repaint, being released in standard DB Cargo ‘Traffic red’. Shortly after on August 27, and still in immaculate condition, it worked the Carlisle-Warrington leg of the Branch Line Society’s ‘Garsdale Growler’ railtour, the second day of a two-day event raising funds for the Martin House Children’s Hospice, complete with headboard. It eventually moved to Dollands Moor in the October to take up freight duties on the high speed route to London, although it is still regularly seen south of Crewe on light engine moves, and has even made the odd foray to Carlisle and back to iron out any ‘bugs’.