40106 Running Day

After an absence of over 5 years from the metals of The East Lancashire Railway (ELR), The ELR and The Class Forty Preservation Society (CFPS) are delighted to announce the locomotives first running day since October 2020 on Saturday 27th December 2025, since arriving back at the ELR in October of this year.

Being one of only 200 of the type built in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, 40106 was one of 20 Class 40’s (40105 to 40124) to be built at the Robert Stephenson and Hawthorn factory in Darlington, allowing production capacity at Vulcan Foundry to build the 22 production Deltics.

After years of anonymous hard work with the rest of the fleet, by 1978 the loco was among a handful of Class 40’s which still hadn’t been repainted into Corporate Blue and Yellow. During her last works overhaul at Crewe in September 1978, the loco was repainted into blue and yellow, but shortly afterwards, it was then decided to repaint the loco in Brunswick Green with full yellow ends. This repaint was reportedly carried out before she left works. 40106 then became a favoured loco on railtours and other special passenger workings for several years.

40106 took part in the ‘Rocket 150’ celebrations at Rainhill, in May 1980, appearing on national television. She was withdrawn from British Rail service in April 1983, being deemed ‘life expired’ and less useful having only vacuum train brakes. The pioneer Class 40, D200, had been restored to operational condition, and became the replacement for 40106. 40106 was purchased by the late, Gerald Boden, in March 1984 and later named  “Atlantic Conveyor” in memory of the Cunard merchant Ship and those on who perished onboard in the 1982 Falklands war, when it was hit by an Exocet Missile.

In November 2015, the locomotive was purchased by the Class Forty Preservation Society and based at the ELR, before going to the Severn Valley Railway (SVR) in 2018 for what turned out to be 7 years of operation at the railway.