59003 Fairwood Junction 11 March 1986

Less than a month after the commencement of Foster Yeoman Class 59 operations in this country, the as yet unnamed 59003 passes Fairwood Junction with the 10:03 Merehead to Eastleigh stone train on 11 March 1986. Unthinkable politically in the 1960s, the purchase of US designed locomotives in preference to British built designs was to gain momentum, resulting in the situation twenty years later, when virtually all freight locos in the UK were foreign built. The tracks in the foreground are the Westbury avoiding lines, while the train is on the original main line, as it will run round in Westbury Yard, in order to gain the former Southern Railway route via Salisbury. A very misty day, with the fog not long cleared and the trees in the distance only just visible in the murk.