Hanson Traction was founded by IT entrepreneur Garcia J Hanson in 2006. The company purchased Neil Boden's preserved class 56, BR large logo blue liveried No. 56057 "British Fuels" in 2008. The locomotive later became 56311 and was painted into a non-standard yellow & grey colour scheme at Derby Railway Technical Centre. Purchase of a second class 56, Load Haul liveried No. 56003 followed shortly afterwards - this became 56312 and was repainted into the striking "Artemis" livery which consisted of a purple bodyside, yellow cabs, grey roof and large green "ARTEMIS" name complete with squiggly green vinyls. Both of these 56's returned to the mainline in late 2008 and have seen use with Colas Rail, having appeared on their Washwood Heath to Immingham & Boston to Washwood Heath steel workings, Dagenham to Dollands Moor "Transfesa" trains and Dollands Moor to Hams Hall Norfolk Line container workings. They have also been used on track machine movements and excursion trains from time to time. 56312 was repainted again in October 2011 and now wears the same livery as 56311, this being a non-standard grey and yellow colour scheme with 'DCR' logos and advertising for the June 2012 'Railfest' event. As of August 2012 the 'Railfest' event logos and advertising have been removed. Two further 56's, No's 56114 and 56128 were also purchased with the view to returning them to the mainline when traffic levels required. However, 56128 has remained in storage at Wansford since 2008 and now appears to have an uncertain future. 56114 has donated its power unit to 56311, and was stripped of usable parts & scrapped in March 2012. Hanson Traction also own class 31's No. 31190 & No. 31602 plus class 50 No. 50008. 31190 has been used mainly on route learning runs for DB Schenker, Network Rail & DCR during 2010 and 2011. 50008 is currently residing at the BARS depot in Washwood Heath where it is undergoing repairs and reinstatement of the vacuum braking & AWS equipment removed for the abortive move to Peru some years ago. It has been repainted into the unique BR "Laira blue" livery, which it carried when it was in service with British Rail. 31452 has remained inactive during 2011 after a brief spout of hire use with DB Schenker for Network Rail test trains during 2010. Neil Boden's BR blue class 47 No. 47270 "Swift" had a short spell with Hanson Traction before he parted ways with the company to form Boden Rail Ltd in early 2010. He had initially joined the company when 56311 was acquired, which he owned and operated at the Nene Valley Railway whilst it was in preservation. Hanson Traction's core depot is the former Alstom facility at Washwood Heath in the West Midlands, which it began using in 2009. In October 2010, the company was merged into the operations of British American Railway Services, a railway rolling stock hire, maintenance company and railway owner in the United Kingdom. As part of the venture,. The acquisition of Hanson Traction by BARS means that the combined assets now include six class 31s, five class 56s and one class 50, plus a wide variety of coaching stock and other vehicles.
