The Class 56 Group

27/08/2026

Thank you to each and every person who contributed to our 2027 Calendar Competition. We were inundated with entries and choosing the winners was a long and carefully considered process.

Congratulations to the following who will each receive a free copy of the calendar(s) in which their photos feature:

Aaron Roberts
Alfie Guinea
Ben Johnson
David James Smith
Dom Warren
Ian Edmondson
Jacob Hampson
Jake Taylor
Jay Stewart
Lewis Hurley
Mark Gail
Martyn Tattam
Nathan Flowers
Neil Robinson
Richard Ruane
Scott Turner
Tom Sell

To those who were not successful, don't be disheartened as there's every chance your photos could still be requested for use in our Gridiron magazine or elsewhere on our social media. Plus, there's always 2028 🙏🏼

26/08/2026

Our new 2027 Calendars are available now from our online shop and will be available at the up and coming East Lancashire Railway Diesel Gala. Big thanks to our friends at HAD-Print for the great service as always

www.class56group.co.uk/shop

25/08/2026

As a thank you to all our members for their continued support of the group, they will receive this limited edition 2027 celebrating 50 years pin badge

Not a member yet and want to be involved then head over to our website and join at www.class56group.co.uk/join

For all other info on the group including our latest celebrating 50 years merchandise please head over to our shop at www.class56group.co.uk/shop

18/08/2026

Our new 2027 calendars are now with our good friends at HAD-Print and will be available just in time for the East Lancs Diesel Gala in September

There will be one featuring our loco 56006 and the other is for the rest of the class.

Thanks to all our competition winners for the photos

You can pre order yours here

2027 56006 A4 Hanging Calendar https://www.class56group.co.uk/product/2027-class-56006-a4-hanging-calenda-copy/

2027 Class 56 A4 Hanging Calenda https://www.class56group.co.uk/product/2026-class-56-calender/

“Celebrate 50 years 56006, with this photographic A4 wall calendar. Depicting over a dozen members of the active fleet during the last ten years, beautifully showcased using high quality digital photographs”.

16/08/2026

The team continue working on removing parts from 56303 and a number of you have got in touch asking about items you might like as a souvenir from the loco.
We are still assessing which parts we need and which might be surplus.
Our sales team will collect all the requests/ interest but we'll be giving preference to C56G members once we start to disposable any parts.

Here are some recent images including some of the repaint of #1 cab of 56006 back into its original black colour scheme.( see first image).

By the way one of the attached images has been generated by AI - can you tell which one?😃

14/08/2026

Who doesn’t love a class 56

August 2026 is the 50th anniversary of the first Class 56s having arrived in the U.K. for British Rail. It is truly remarkable that these fine machines are still being used today, a testament to the engineering prowess of the past.

The ‘Grid’ will always be a special part of Cavalex history being our first 4mm scale Locomotive - we are looking forward to celebrating the anniversary further over the next few months!

14/08/2026

August 2026 is the 50th anniversary of the first Class 56s having arrived in the U.K. for British Rail. It is truly remarkable that these fine machines are still being used today, a testament to the engineering prowess of the past.

The ‘Grid’ will always be a special part of Cavalex history being our first 4mm scale Locomotive - we are looking forward to celebrating the anniversary further over the next few months!

14/08/2026

Who’s coming on the grid tour tomorrow.

There is plenty of our team and members onboard tomorrow and we will have a sales area in Coach F so come along say hello and support the group

https://www.railwaytouring.net/the-slate-miner

56049 is currently on the move from Carlisle to Stafford on 0z56

https://railcam.uk/rcdata/RCData2_detail.php?r=S&tid=090Z561D14&ts=1786693980

And then tomorrow Stafford to Wolverhampton on 0z28

See you all tomorrow for an amazing run

The Railway Touring Company has a long established reputation for providing an interesting variety of UK day trips by steam train and tours in the UK, Europe and Worldwide.

04/08/2026

Friend of the group and Class 56 afficionado Matthew Tann (MCT Trains) has created this wonderful video celebrating 50 years of these impeccable machines. The video is, fittingly, 56 minutes in length and covers a wide array of clips featuring them doing what they do best. There's also some segments about our own locomotive 56006, still the sole preserved Class 56 and also the last surviving Romanian-built example.

Thank you to Matthew for putting this together and for choosing to involve the group, support like this is always greatly appreciated.

Hello and welcome to MCT Trains 🚂 Welcome to this celebration video...

04/08/2026