Due to the poor reliability of the class 56, British Railways tendered a new diesel locomotive for heavy block trains. The winner of the tender was Brush Traction and the engine was from Mirrlees. This draws 3,100 hp from just eight cylinders and was one of the most economical on the market at the time. After a few teething problems, the first locomotives were put into service in 1990. After privatization, they all came to the EWS, which at times put 75 percent of the locomotives out of service. They later came to DB Cargo UK where some were modernized from 2010 onwards. Others were soon resold and in 2020 the first one was scrapped. 