Class 47/8 No. 47853/D1733 Rail Express (XP64 blue)

WITH CHRIS GREEN at the helm, Virgin Trains made a most welcome gesture in 2002 to mark the last year of the Class 47/8s on Cross-Country services before the introduction of ‘Voyager’ units. Several machines were selected for naming after the specialist railway press and given ‘heritage’ repaints. By chance, RE’s boss (and editor of Rail Express at the time) chose No. 47853. The former D1733 was, of course, the loco that introduced BR blue by virtue of powering the XP64 demonstration train. An approach was made to the Danish company, Heljan, which had only just entered the UK model market with a high specification Class 47 model and the rest is history!