The emergence of the Class 57 went back to the idea of the British freight train service provider Freightliner, founded in the 1990s, who wanted to buy some of the state-owned British Rail Class 47s, which were prone to damage and were inefficient, and wanted to use them again after modernization. As a life-prolonging measure, for example, the 12-cylinder diesel engine 12-645 from EMD, which has been tried and tested ten thousand times over, was installed, which accelerated the six-axle vehicle to 121 km/h. While the first six freight locomotives were still being converted, Freightliner withdrew from purchasing the re-fitted locos and procured the new Class 66 from EMD instead. In 2000, locomotive hire company Porterbrook ordered a passenger locomotive designed for a top speed of 153 km/h and equipped with electric train heating, which was followed by 20 more. The new Class 57s are tried and tested by various companies in freight and passenger train service.. Different starting processes can be selected with F1: 1x press button = warm start / press button 2x = false start / press button 3x = cold start
F2 slows down the locomotive slowly.
For F3 and F4, a total of 2 different signal horn variants can be selected with CV167: Value 0 = Horn variant 1 (default on), Value 1 = Horn variant 2
F5 enables the heavy load mode: The diesel notch is always one up compared with normal operation. If you want to jump two notches, simply set CV 104 to 150 (instead of 130).
F8 turns on the manual ntoching. Once F8 is on, you can use F7 to notch up and F6 to notch down. F8, F6, and F7 must be turned off to return to normal mode. If F8 is off and you press F7, the prime mover will run to full speed.
F14, F18 and CV 170 value 0 or 1, can switch between a "normal announcement" or an announcement "with gong".
F9 can increase the speed of the spirax valve by double-clicking it. The speed levels are slow, medium and fast.
17 will bring the locomotive to full stop.
F21 and CV 168 = value 0 or 1, can switch between a "normal" or a "squeaking" wiper.
F28 and CV 164 = Value 0, 1, 2 or 3, can switch between different rail joints (three coupler can be activated with CV 165 = value 1).
F29 and CV 169 = value 0 or 1, can switch between the "Automatic Warning System (AWS)" or the "Train Protection and Warning System (TPWS)".