Direct Rail Services (DRS) is a freight operating company created by British Nuclear Fuels Limited. The company started rail operations in 1995 using five heavily refurbished Class 20/3

British Rail Class 20

The British Rail Class 20, otherwise known as an English Electric Type 1, is a class of diesel-electric locomotive. In total, 228 locomotives in the class were built by English Electric between 1957 and 1968, the large number being in part because of the failure of other early designs in the same...

 diesel locomotive

Diesel locomotive

A diesel locomotive is a type of railroad locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine, a reciprocating engine operating on the Diesel cycle as invented by Dr. Rudolf Diesel...

s. Since then it has expanded greatly, and has acquired many more locomotives, most bought second-hand and subsequently refurbished. Ownership of DRS was transferred from BNFL to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority is a non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom formed by the Energy Act 2004. It came into existence in late 2004, and took on its main functions on 1 April 2005...

 when the NDA was created on 1 April 2005, under the terms of the Energy Act 2004.