With less than two months to go before the class would be ousted from passenger trains in the Thames Valley and Oxford area, 50023 Howe passes through Heyford station with the 1F87 18:39 Banbury to Paddington Network SouthEast service on 24 May 1990. 50023 made the transition from the NWRA (Thames) to NWXC (Waterloo reserve) pool on 12 July. Its use on the West of England route was minimal (if at all), as a month later it was transferred to the DCWA departmental pool, and then withdrawn shortly afterwards.