In light of the privatization of the British railfreight sector, EWS decided to replace a large number of the older (and sometimes unreliable) diesel locomotives in their fleet by newer ones. For that purpose, an order for 250 JT42CWR locomotives was placed in cooperation with Locomotion Capital (now known as Angel Trains) under a long term lease contract. With the order, EWS was launching customer of the Class 66. However, they already had some experience with its predecessor: the JT26CW-SS (Class 59). Nontheless, the Class 66 mostly resemble the Class 59 on the exterior, not on the interior.

During the first decade of this millenium, a batch of 60 locomotives was prepared for use in France with subsidiary EuroCargoRail (ECR). Although they return every once in a while for maintenance or for use on RHTT (sandite) services, they spend most of their time on the other side of the Channel. After DB Schenker took over EWS, a batch of 15 locomotives, including a unit formerly in use in France, was also modified for operations abroad. They ended up in Poland and are operated by DB subsidiary DB Schenker Rail Polska.

At the end of a lease period of approximately 15 years, DB Schenker Rail UK decided to purchase all locomotives from Angel Trains and now owns them outright.

As of March 2016, DB Schenker Rail UK is known as DB Cargo UK. A year later, in December 2017, the company sold ten of its Class 66s to GB Railfreight: 66008, 016, 046, 058, 081, 132, 141, 184, 238 and 250.

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