Class 50 locomotives

• 50007 ran light engine from Washwood Heath to Crewe on Wednesday 28th May 2014, where it collected two motorail vans and returned them to Washwood Heath. It was a foul day for late May, raining on and off for much of the time, and gloomy all day. The return train wasn't due at Walsall until well after 7pm, by which time most cars were driving round with their lights on. So I was rather pleased with this shot of 5Z47, seen leaving Walsall at 19:21. A testament to the camera really, set at ISO1600, 1/200 and f5.6, slightly overexposing to provide an image that's a bit brighter than the actual scene.
• 50015 heads west through East Usk with the Heathfield - Briton Ferry tanks. This shot was taken on the afternoon of Wednesday 19th July 1989, but I don't have the exact time as I lost a notebook covering this period. I've no idea why it was running on the main line rather than the relief, and I don't remember any other freights doing likewise on the same day. Thanks to Kevin Smith and Ian Horner for help with this caption.
• 50015 heads 1Z29 13:35 Worcester - Hereford, a train run in connection with the Hereford Rail Festival. This shot was taken at 14:30 on Sunday 5th May 1991, and the location is the A4103 overbridge near Whitestone, a few miles east of Shelwick Jct.
• 50018 trundles the 9M01 Gloucester - Bescot departmental service through Great Bridge at 10:35 on Tuesday 12th July 1988. This rather wonderful train, together with the 9V01 return working, was booked a Class 50 for a couple of years in the late 1980s. Its main failing was that it only ran on Tuesdays, significantly reducing the chances of photographing it in good light. On this occasion I got lucky, although even here the scene isn't totally sunlit.
• 50023 passes Bescot at 13:59 on Saturday 15th April 1989. The train is 5V96 Oxley CS - New St, a train which attracted a small but regular following at Bescot, where 50s were never common. Didn't care much for the black window frames, nor to be honest the NSE "toothpaste" livery. A large-logo blue loco was always better for the photo.
• 50026 arrives at Bewdley with the 12:47 Bridgnorth - Kidderminster. Taken at 13:40 on Saturday 6th October 2012, and intended as much a photo of the centre-pivot signals as the train.
• Now in NSE livery, rather than large-logo as above, 50026 runs-round its train at Kidderminster on the afternoon of Monday 19th May 2014.
• 50030 accelerates through Northfield at 11:13 on Saturday 1st October 1988. The train was 1V43 Liverpool - Penzance. After this shot I stayed at Northfield to photograph 31449+31420 on the 10:10 Manchester - Paignton which passed at 12:24. Then I went to Selly Oak for 31437 towing failed Norwich DMU set 59 on a New St - East Anglia working at 14:05, followed by 50003 on the 08:50 Glasgow - Paignton at 14:12.
• 50031 accelerates towards Lye at 09:46 on Saturday 3rd November 2001. The train is 1Z27 Cardiff - Blackpool North, a Pathfinder railtour.
• 50031 and 50049 approach Droitwich with a 1Z27 Swindon -Inverness charter on Friday 16th June 2006. I have no idea which loco is which because they were masquerading as 50028 and 50012, on one side at least. The train was running five minutes late, probably delayed by the preceding unit, and the picture was taken at 09:07. This caused me some minor angst because a swathe of thin high cloud was about to spoil what had been a cloudless morning. Fortunately the train beat the cloud, and the light was perfect. Pete Tandy's shot of this train was taken from Droitwich station, a couple of hundred yards behind me.
• 50032 rushes through Bescot with 5V96 Oxley - New St at 13:50 on Saturday 4th March 1989. This ECS formed 1V96 14:41 New St - Paddington. Class 50s were never common at Bescot but around this period there were booked workings on Tuesday and Saturday. The Tuesday train was the 9M01/9V01 departmental service (see above), and 5V96 was the Saturday train.
• 50034 accelerates away from Wednesbury with 9M01 Gloucester - Bescot. This shot was taken at 11:46 on Tuesday 26th January 1988, a rather manky day. 50034 was back in the area a few days later, working a Taunton - Carlisle railtour in multiple with 50008. The tour ran on Saturday 30th and passed Bescot at 09:32, about 50 late, after 50034 had replaced a poorly 50036 at Gloucester.
• The return of the train above. 50034 approaches Wednesbury with 9V01 Bescot - Gloucester. This view is from the other side of Ridding Lane, with Hydes Road bridge in the background, and was taken at 13:25 on Tuesday 26th January 1988. The stellar consist includes a Class 08 (08621), a CCT van, a TEA tank, and a brakevan. Even though it's only four vehicles long it's a fairly safe bet that a formation like this never ran before, nor afterwards. If this had been a sunny day, and the shot had been on K64, it could easily have ended up being my favourite railway photo of all the ones I've ever taken. But this was Britain, in January, so a dank and dull day was much more likely.
• 50034 arriving at Birmingham International on what I presume was 1V96 New St - Paddington. Exact date unknown, but likely to have been summer 1989.
• 50035 emerges from the shadows at Eardington. It was hauling the 14:35 Kidderminster - Bridgnorth when photographed at 15:48 on Friday 2nd October 2015.
• 50035 leaves Kidderminster with the 08:20 to Bridgnorth. This shot was taken at 08:21 on Sunday 20th May 2018, a Mixed Traction gala day. At the bottom right of the frame is the roof of 88010, which was ready to return to Crewe later in the day.
• 50036 stands at Birmingham International with a Paddington-bound train, probably 1V96 again. This shot was taken in autumn 1989.
• Another shot of a 50 on 5V96 Oxley - New St. This is 50039 storming through Bescot at 13:52 on Saturday 11th March 1989. Pretty much everyone on the platform is there to see this train, or more specifically the loco. A few other locos which worked the same train during the spring of 1989: 50031 on 28th January; 50037 on 4th February; 50032 on 4th March; 50050 on 25th March; 50039 on 1st April; 50023 on 15th April (see above); and 50037 on 13th May. Unfortunately by this stage I only recorded the numbers of locos that I photographed, or had seen for the first time at Bescot, so this is an incomplete list.
• 50042 climbs towards Dudley with 9V01 Bescot - Gloucester at 13:20 on Tuesday 21st February 1989. Digging out the caption info for this shot I was surprised to find that it was taken in February, the light looks more like late March or April and the shadows aren't that long. But February it was, and a very nice day as well by the look of it. (See also this monochrome shot of 50025 on 9V01. It isn't up to much technically, but the consist of the train rather makes up for it.)
• 50044 worked a Euston - Holyhead charter train on Saturday 3rd September 2011. It returned south as 1Z51 Holyhead - Euston on Sunday 4th, and is seen here passing Bescot at 16:59. This train used the Virgin Pretendolino stock, with a 57/3 trailing on the rear for most of the journey.
• 50044 worked a charter from Cardiff to Plymouth on Saturday 21st July 2012, but ran into mechanical trouble on the return. 66719 dragged it back to Kidderminster at lunchtime on Monday 23rd, decanting it on the NR/SVR connection. Later that afternoon the Kidderminster pilot engine, D3022, shunted it into the yard, as seen here at 16:41.
• 50049 was the diesel being used at the Severn Valley Railway on Saturday 25th August 2007. It's seen here a mile or so east of Bewdley with the 14:50 to Kidderminster. The area immediately behind the train is the Safari Park.
• 50049 and 50007, masquerading as 50011 and 50006, pass Bescot at 13:05 on Sunday 23rd September 2018. The locos were en-route from the SVR at Kidderminster to Crewe, from where they would work the last leg of the four-day GBRf charity bash as far as Hanwell.
• On Tuesday 24th May 2016 a pair of Class 50s ran light engine from Washwood Heath to Crewe. They then took a rake of redundant coal hoppers for storage at Donnington, before returning to Crewe with some intermodal flats, and finally heading back to Washwood Heath light engine. This is 4G50 Crewe - Donnington approaching Admaston, just west of Wellington, at 12:03.
• Very short of detail here. The Class 50 is heading north through Langley Green, with what my memory tells me was a test train of some sort, although it could have been a road learner judging by the number of blokes in the cab. I'd gone to Langley for a tank train from Rowley Regis, and this was a complete surprise. The Class 47 on the tanks was in the original Railfreight grey livery, which dates this shot to the mid-eighties. Unfortunately I can't identify the loco, even from the original scan, despite the large numbers.