British Rail Class 99 - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The British Rail Class 99 was a fleet of 14 ferries, mostly owned by Sealink

Sealink

Sealink was a ferry company based in the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1984, operating services to France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Channel Islands, Isle of Wight and Ireland....

, which carried rail vehicles between Britain and mainland Europe. When British Rail implemented the TOPS

TOPS

Total Operations Processing System, or TOPS, is a computer system for managing the locomotives and rolling stock owned by a rail system...

system for managing their operating stock, these ships were incorporated into the system in order to circumvent some of the restrictions of the application software. This allowed them to be counted as locomotives while carrying railway vehicles in the same way as a normal locomotive would haul a train.

Details

There were 14 Class 99s, used for carrying road and rail vehicles from Britain to the continent (road only vehicles did not receive TOPS numbers). They were of various ages and origins, but all carried the BR double arrow logo on their red funnels. This was generally set up so that the upper arrow pointed towards the bow, and so was reversed on the port side of the ship. The hull was painted blue, with "Sealink" written in large grey letters between the waterline and the deck. A grey stripe was painted on some around parts of the top of the hull, with the main body of the ship being grey or white. Unlike other non-steam locomotives with TOPS numbers, no yellow warning panels were provided. Names were painted on the bow and stern but the TOPS numbers were not visibly carried. The table shows what are believed to be the numbers allocated:

Number	Introduced	Builder / Ship yard	Type	Current Status
99 001	New to LNER London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway was the second-largest of the "Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain... 1947		TF/C/P	Scrapped 1980
99 002	New to BR British Rail British Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages... 1951		TF/C/P	Scrapped 1983
99 003	New to BR 1957		TF/C/P	Scrapped 1983
99 004	New to BR 1963	Hawthorne, Leslie (Shipbuilders) Ltd, Hebburn, England	TF/C/P	Scrapped 2003
99 005	New to Stena Line Stena Line Stena Line is one of the world's largest ferry operators, with ferry services serving Scotland, Sweden, Northern Ireland, Denmark, Norway, England, Wales, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands and Poland. Stena Line is a major unit of Stena AB, itself a part of the Stena Sphere, a grouping of Stena AB,... 1973; sold to Sealink 1980		TF/C	In service (Poland)
99 006	New to SR Southern Railway (Great Britain) The Southern Railway was a British railway company established in the 1923 Grouping. It linked London with the Channel ports, South West England, South coast resorts and Kent... 1934	Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson Ltd Swan Hunter Swan Hunter, formerly known as "Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson", was one of the best known shipbuilding companies in the world. Based in Wallsend, Tyne and Wear, the company was responsible for some of the greatest ships of the early 20th century — most famously, the RMS Mauretania which... , Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...	P/VF/TF	Scrapped 1974
99 007	New to BR 1969		P/VF/TF	Scrapped 2004
99 008	New to Sealink Sealink Sealink was a ferry company based in the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1984, operating services to France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Channel Islands, Isle of Wight and Ireland.... 1971		TF/C/P	In service (Canada)
99 009	New to SR 1935		P/VF/TF	Scrapped 1972
99 010	New to SR 1939	William Denny & Bros Ltd William Denny and Brothers William Denny and Brothers Limited, and often referred to simply as Denny, were a Scottish shipbuilding company.-History:The Company was founded by Peter Denny in 1840 and based in Dumbarton, on the River Clyde. Although the Denny yard was situated near the junction of the River Clyde and the River... , Dumbarton	P/VF/TF	Scrapped 1972
99 011	New to BR/French National Railways 1951	Helsingor Skibsvaerft og Maskinbyggeri A/S Helsingor, Denmark	P/VF/TF	Scrapped 1988
99 012	New to SNCF SNCF The SNCF , is France's national state-owned railway company. SNCF operates the country's national rail services, including the TGV, France's high-speed rail network... 1973		P/VF/TF	In service (Spain)
99 013	New to BR / Angleterre-Lorraine-Alsace Société Anonyme de Navigation (ALA) 1975	Cantieri Navali di Pietra Ligure, Genoa. Italy	P/VF/TF	In service (Italy)
99 014	New to SNCF 1968		TF/C	Scrapped 2001

Key
P	Passenger
VF	Vehicle Ferry
TF	Train Ferry
C	Container ship

There were also a number of other Sealink vessels which did not carry rail vehicles and so did not receive TOPS numbers.

While in traffic several vessels were involved in various incidents. Vortigern grounded on the approach to Oostende in 1982. Sealink Vanguard collided with European Gateway on the approach to Harwich

Harwich

Harwich is a town in Essex, England and one of the Haven ports, located on the coast with the North Sea to the east. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the northeast, Ipswich to the northwest, Colchester to the southwest and Clacton-on-Sea to the south...

, also in 1982, causing serious damage to the latter vessel, which nearly sank altogether. This was the most serious accident that a Class 99 was involved in while working for Sealink, resulting in six fatalities.

Disposal

The mixed origins of the fleet meant that disposal was carried out in a patchy manner, and at no point were all 14 Class 99s in service. Instead, ships were cut up at any time after the 30-year-old mark, and so Sealink disposed of 6 prior to privatisation in 1984. No.99009 Shepperton Ferry was withdrawn and broken up in Spain in 1972 while No.99010 Invicta was dismantled in the Netherlands in the same year. No.99006 Twickenham Ferry, the oldest member of the fleet, was withdrawn for scrap in 1974. No.99001 Suffolk Ferry, No.99002 Norfolk Ferry and No.99003 Essex Ferry were all withdrawn around 1980 and broken up shortly afterwards.

The remaining eight members of the fleet (99004/5/7/8/11-14) left British Rail ownership when Sealink was sold in 1984, after which they were invariably renamed (sometimes several times, making them harder to trace). The vessels were scattered across the world, with new homes including Cuba, Greece, Canada and Malta. Subsequently four of the ferries (now all over 30 years old) have been broken up but four appear to still be in service. No.99008 Anderida has, since 1988, been owned by Cooperative de Transport Maritime et Aerien in Canada and is the oldest survivor, dating back to 1971. She now carries the name C.T.M.A. Voyageur and retains several historic features. No.99013 St. Eloi is now owned by Moby Lines

Moby Lines

Moby Lines is an Italian shipping company that operates ferries and cruiseferries between the Italian or French mainland and the islands of Elba, Sardinia and Corsica. The company was founded in 1959 under the name Navigazione Arcipelago Maddalenino .In 2006 Moby Lines purchased Lloyd Sardegna...

, and is brightly painted as Moby Love. No.99012 Chartres was recently chartered by Atlanticoline, but now appears to be back at Gibraltar. No.99005 Sealink Vanguard, the lowest-numbered (and possibly most-travelled) survivor, has spent time in Cuba and Panama, but is now registered in Gdansk

Gdansk

Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...

as the Birdik I.

Meanwhile, No.99011 St. Germain was dismantled in India in 1988. No.99014 Transcontainer I was broken up early in 2001, also in India, while No.99004 Cambridge Ferry met its end in Turkey in 2003 after working off Malta as Ita Uno and Sirio. No.99007 Vortigern moved to Greece for ferry services around the islands, for which she was re-named Express Milos. She finished her days as the Nisos Limnos; Greek regulations on the age of passenger ferries prompted her to be sold for scrap in India in 2004.

As time goes by the surviving Class 99s (99005/8/12/13) will probably also be broken up. Uniquely for a TOPS locomotive fleet which survived into the 1980s, none have been saved for preservation.

Details

Disposal

See also

Further reading