Cotswold Rail

Cotswold Rail Engineering Limited

Fate	Dissolved
Founded	2000
Defunct	2009
Headquarters	Cheltenham, United Kingdom
Services	Locomotive spot-hire
Subsidiaries	Advenza Freight
Website	www.costwoldrail.com

Class 47, no. 47316 'Cam Peak', at Doncaster Works open day on 27th July 2003. This locomotive had recently been returned to traffic after a period in store. It is painted in the distinctive Cotswold Rail corporate livery

Class 47, no. 47818, at Cambridge in August 2004. This locomotive is owned by Cotswold Rail but hired to 'one'. Over the summer of 2004, it hauled diverted passenger trains from London Liverpool St. to Norwich, due to engineering works at Ipswich

Cotswold Rail was a spot-hire company of shunting and mainline locomotives, based in Gloucester, England. It was based at Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire. It owned a fleet of Class 08 shunting locomotives, which were hired to both industry and main-line railway companies. It also had a small fleet of Class 47 locomotives, which were hired to National Express Group plc, following on from its predecessor 'one'. They were also been hired for passenger charter trains. Cotswold Rail's livery is silver, with red and blue bands. It named its locomotives after geographical features, such as Cam Peak and the Fosse Way, or after music industry personalities, namely John Peel, Joe Strummer and Captain Sensible.

In April 2005, Cotswold Rail acquired its first Class 87 electric locomotives. A fleet of ten locomotives was planned for spot-hire work, charter operations and a new intermodal freight flow. However, all locomotives were returned to the leasing company (Porterbrook) in 2006.

Cotswold Rail acquired a High Speed Train set in September 2005, including two Class 43 power cars. The trains were previously in use with Virgin Trains on summer holidays services from Newcastle-upon-Tyne to Newquay. They were later returned to Porterbrook leasing company.

In 2006, Cotswold Rail leased the previously closed depot at Gloucester. The facility, next to Gloucester Station, was also the location of the company offices and usually played host to stabled company owned locomotives.

Cotswold Rail's operational freight arm, Advenza Freight, was wound up in the High Court on 7 October 2009, following a petition from HM Revenue & Customs.^[1]

Blue Pullman

In 2007 Cotswold Rail acquired rights to the Blue Pullman service, setting up the The Blue Pullman Train Co Ltd.^[2] using the Blue Pullman liveried coaches purchased following the receivership of its previous operator FM Rail, which ran it through its Hertfordshire Rail Tours business. Cotswold re-launched the Blue Pullman service on February 2007 using its silver Class 47s.^[3]

Fleet

References