FM Rail - Fragonset Railways Limited

Fragonset Railways Limited

Fragonset was formed in 1997. Its first purchases were four Class 47/7 locomotives with a further class 47/7 on hire from the Lear family, 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, 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 continued until 1999, when Class 150/1 diesel multiple units replaced them. Following this, the Class 31 fleet was employed on a variety of duties, including hire to WAGN to haul electrical multiple units between depots for maintenance.

In 1998-2004 Fragonset acquired many redundant locomotives from EWS, mainly of classes 31, 33, 47 and 73. Many of these locomotives were purchased for spare parts, and several have since been scrapped.

Fragonset has had many customers:

• Virgin Trains - hired Class 47s in 1997-2002 to cover for the non-availability of their own fleet.
• Wessex Trains - hired Class 31s to haul passenger services from Bristol-Weymouth and Bristol-Brighton. 31601 was repainted into Wessex Trains "Heart of Wessex" pink livery. Services were regular worked on Fridays and summer Saturdays. Booked services ceased in 2004, but Wessex Trains continued to use them for special events and for bank-holiday traffic until 2006.
• First North Western - hired Class 31s to work passenger trains from Blackpool-Manchester-Chester. These services ceased in 2004.
• Railtrack - hired 31190 and 31601 to haul test trains. Both locomotives were repainted into Railtrack's blue and lime green livery. Network Rail (Railtrack's successor) now has its own fleet of 31s, so no longer requires the Fragonset locomotives.
• FirstGBRf - hires Class 73s to supplement their own fleet.
• South West Trains - hired Class 33s and 73s to act as "Thunderbird" rescue locomotives.
• West Coast Railway Company - hired 31190. It was repainted into Royal Scotsman maroon livery.
• Midland Mainline - hired Class 47s and Mk2s to cover for a shortage of HSTs, running a morning Nottingham to London service and an evening London to Sheffield.

Some locomotives, notably 47355 and 73107, were repainted into a "freight" livery of all-over black with large "Fragonset" lettering.

Unfortunately, by 2004 the special niche that Fragonset had been servicing by providing spot-hire locomotives and carriages was in decline for a number of reasons, including:

• Better utilisation by the customers of their own fleets.
• Search by the customers for more reliable and more modern stock.
• Competition from other locomotive and carriage suppliers.