Information AboutFm Rail |
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, No. 31128 ''Charybdis'', at Bristol Temple Meads on 23 July 2004 . This locomotive is currently hired to Wessex Trains to operate trains from Bristol Temple Meads to Brighton or Weymouth .]] Fragonset Merlin Rail or '''FM Rail''' is a Railway spot-hire and charter company based at Derby , United Kingdom . The company was formed in January 2005 following the merging of charter company '''Merlin Rail''' with spot-hire company '''Fragonset Railways'''. FM Rail lauched its new livery in September 2005, when no. 47832 was repainted for the Crewe Works open day. In mid-2005, FM Rail purchased railtour operator Hertfordshire Rail Tours . In January 2006, the "Blue Pullman" was launched, and two Class 47 locomotives were repainted into a Nanking Blue livery to match the coaching stock. In 2006 , FM Rail purchased the assets of Pathfinder Tours , another railtour operator, in conjunction with Riviera Trains . FRAGONSET RAILWAYS Fragonset Railways was formed in 1997. Its first purchases were five Class 47/7 locomotives, which were hired to Virgin Trains due to the poor availability of their own fleet. The locomotives were soon repainted into a new livery of black, with a broad maroon mid-bodyside stripe. In 1998, Fragonset purchased several redundant Class 31 locomotives from EWS . The first of these, no. 31452, was quickly repaired at the company's base at Tyseley Locomotive Works . A further four Class 31s quickly followed. They were initially employed on Silverlink services on the Marston Vale Line , operating in top and tail mode with two carriages. The use of the Class 31s was a temporary measure, and their use passenger services continued until 1999, when Class 150/1 Diesel Multiple Unit s replaced them. Following this, the Class 31 fleet was employed on a variety of duties, including hire to WAGN to haul Electrical Multiple Unit s between depots for maintenance. In the period 1998-2004, Fragonset acquired many redundant locomotives from EWS , mainly from Classes 31 , 33 , 47 and 73 . Many of these locomotives were purchased for spare parts, and several have since been scrapped. Over the years, Fragonset has had many customers. These are summarised below.
Some locomotives, notably nos. 47355 and 73107, were repainted into a 'freight' livery of all over black, with large "Fragonset" lettering. FLEET DETAILS EXTERNAL LINKS |
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