Privatisation and takeover

The first stage of Wisconsin Central’s entry into the British freight market came at 05.00 on Saturday 9 December 1995, when it was announced that Rail Express Systems had been sold to a US-led consortium headed by Wisconsin Central for £25.7 million.

The sale included 164 locomotives, 677 vans, four depots at Crewe, Bristol Barton Hill, Cambridge and Euston Downside, and approximately 800 staff.

The trading name initially used in the UK was North & South Railways Limited. Wisconsin Central also confirmed that it was bidding for all three of the former BR Trainload freight companies: Transrail, Mainline and Loadhaul.

The Government had originally hoped to sell the Trainload businesses separately in order to encourage competition. In practice, few bidders were interested in taking on just one of the companies, as this would leave them exposed to competition from the other two. The prospect of buying all three together, however, proved much more attractive.

By the end of December 1995, only two bidders remained in contention: Wisconsin Central and FirstFreight, the latter comprising Loadhaul management backed by Denver-based OmniTRAX.

During early 1996 it was announced that Wisconsin Central and North & South Railways were the preferred bidders. The formal signing took place in the early hours of 24 February 1996, followed later that day by an official handover ceremony at London Marylebone station. At that event, BRB Chairman John Welsby formally handed the three businesses to Wisconsin Central President Ed Burkhardt.

The purchase price for the three Trainload companies was £225.15 million. Together, they had carried 88.7 million tonnes of freight in the previous year and generated a turnover of £559 million. Critics argued that the price paid was well below the replacement value of the assets involved.

Trainload Freight fact-file — what Wisconsin Central took over

By this point British Rail, having sold off Rail Express Systems, Red Star Parcels, Transrail, Mainline Freight and Loadhaul, was left operating only Freightliner and Railfreight Distribution.

Freightliner remained unprofitable and had failed to attract a buyer by 1996, while Railfreight Distribution stayed in BR ownership through 1996 and much of 1997.

The name London, Central and Scottish Railways was never adopted. Instead, the interim North & South Railways title gave way in early 1996 to the new and much more familiar name: English, Welsh & Scottish Railway Limited.

On 24 December 1996, Wisconsin Central and EWS were named preferred bidders for Railfreight Distribution. However, the takeover required European Commission approval, so it was not until 22 November 1997 that the sale was finally completed.

The final BR-operated RfD working was the 23.15 Dollands Moor to Wembley on 21 November 1997, hauled by 92003 Beethoven. From the following day, Railfreight Distribution officially passed into Wisconsin Central ownership.

RfD branding continued to be used until 30 November 1998, after which the business became known as EWS International.

The EWS business

Having acquired Rail Express Systems, the three former Trainload freight companies and later Railfreight Distribution, EWS controlled approximately 85% of Britain’s railfreight market, although rail itself still accounted for only a small proportion of total freight moved within the UK.

EWS organised its activities into five main business elements:

• Coal
• Metals
• Construction
• Petrochemicals
• Infrastructure Services

In addition, it also operated a Rail Services section dealing with Travelling Post Office traffic, charter trains, rail test trains and Royal Train movements.

The development of EWS identity

The EWS livery was developed entirely in-house under the direction of Wisconsin Central. Engineers at Toton were asked to investigate how Wisconsin Central’s corporate maroon and gold colours, themselves inherited from the Soo Line tradition, might be adapted to smaller British locomotive bodyshells.

Initial concepts involved printing side elevations of locomotives onto large sheets and effectively colouring them in by hand. The overall concept was considered successful, but some of the earliest ideas proved impractical or unattractive.

One suggestion was that the words Wisconsin Central should appear in red capitals on the gold band. This was dropped. Another proposal involved placing the Wisconsin Central Railroad logo in maroon within the yellow warning panel, but this too was abandoned.

The final specification for the new EWS livery called for maroon bodysides, roofs and ends; black underframes and bufferbeams; standard UK yellow warning panels; and a reflective yellow stripe along the bottom of the bodyside, derived from American practice intended to improve visibility at night.

To ensure consistency, a sample plate was flown from the USA to the UK so that British paint could be mixed to match the required maroon shade. It was later said that the shade used on the Class 66s and 67s, mixed in North America, was slightly lighter than the British version.

A number of unofficial or non-standard variations also appeared, including red bufferbeams, black headcode boxes and other minor local differences.

The first locomotive to carry any sort of EWS livery was 37057, which emerged from Toton in April 1996. The first Class 58 to appear in EWS colours was 58033, notable for having its gold band positioned much higher than on later examples.

Some locomotives, including a number of Class 37s, 56s and 60s, even ran in traffic in plain undercoat while overhauls were completed before the final livery specification had been signed off. 58033 itself completed a test run in undercoat before being painted.

From 1997 onwards, the third and most recognisable version of the livery emerged: the ampersand disappeared, the spacing was tightened and the typeface changed to Gill Sans. Due to the cost of repainting, locomotives only received the revised scheme when passing through major works attention or overhaul, meaning many retained pre-privatisation liveries for years afterwards.

The first recorded passenger charter working by an EWS-liveried locomotive was by 58033 on the return leg of Pathfinder’s Yorkshire Doodle Dandy railtour on 13 July 1996.

The EWS logo story

Rather than turn immediately to a traditional design consultancy, EWS worked with RAIL magazine, which invited readers to submit ideas for the new company logo in a special Freight in the 1990s supplement issued with RAIL 277 in early 1996.

More than 1,200 entries were submitted and all were judged by Ed Burkhardt. The winning design came from Tom Connell and depicted an English lion, Welsh dragon and Scottish stag — the now famous Three Beasties.

The design was said to convey speed and national reach, and was intended for use on locomotives, wagons, depot signage, publicity material and stationery. Although EWS had originally planned to use a winning idea merely as the basis for a final professional design, in practice only a very small alteration was made to Connell’s original concept.

On 14 January 1997, Tom Connell was invited to Toton depot to unveil the new EWS logo on the cabside of 58037, making it the first locomotive to carry the Three Beasties symbol.

He was presented with a prototype three-dimensional cast aluminium plaque of the design, and as part of his prize was also given a cab ride of his choice, which he later took behind 60037 on the 09.40 Burngullow to Irvine tanks on 15 May 1997.

Cast plaques had originally been considered for all locomotives, but the expense of producing two for each member of a fleet of around 650 locomotives made this impractical. Reflective yellow vinyl transfers were therefore adopted instead.

EWS’s decision to invite enthusiasts to design the logo generated criticism from design professionals. Roundel Design, already familiar from its work on the Trainload and RES identities, argued that the process was flawed in several ways, citing the use of an American-inspired livery, an inappropriate name, unclear design criteria and insufficient attention to customer views.

Even so, history suggests that the EWS identity became highly successful and deeply recognisable, whatever the concerns expressed at the time.

The EWS locomotive story

Under EWS, the practice of maintaining separate locomotive pools for dedicated traffics was gradually phased out in favour of a national go-anywhere, do-anything fleet.

In 1996, Engineering Director Jim Fisk outlined a long-term plan in which the core EWS diesel fleet would be based around Class 66s, 60s, 58s, 56s and 37s, backed by 08 shunters and supported by a reserve fleet of serviceable stored locomotives.

Locomotives known to have carried the EWS livery