50006 Neptune passes the site of Challow station on 12 August 1980 with the 1A01 08:31 Cheltenham to Paddington service. 50006 was the first Class 50 to be refurbished, and in common with the first few released to traffic was outshopped in plain blue livery and with the position for the new headlamp covered with a blanking plate, allegedly due to shortage of parts. It is seen in this condition here. Long before the reinstatement of the relief lines, the remains of Challow station are gradually being taken over by nature, and the well known local scrap and recycling firm Haynes of Challow were still using the old station site to store their vehicles.

50006 Neptune arrives at Kingham station with the 15:00 Paddington to Hereford service on 17 April 1982. All was not well with the loco, as it was misfiring badly. The explosive banging noise as it departed in a cloud of blue smoke was something I have never heard before or since from a loco in normal service (possibly a stuck exhaust valve?). Although still in rail blue livery, the loco is in refurbished condition (note the headlight and lack of sand fillers on the bodyside). It was in fact the first Class 50 to be refurbished, returning to traffic in November 1979.

50006 Neptune darkens the sky as it departs from Gloucester with the 1S61 07:47 Cardiff Central to Edinburgh service on 6 July 1985, which it would work as far as Birmingham New Street. Classmate 50004 St Vincent can be seen on the right waiting to follow it out with the 09:15 Gloucester to Swindon parcels. Gloucester cathedral dominates the skyline in the background.

50007 Sir Edward Elgar passes Old Basing with the 09:55 Honiton to Waterloo service on 28 April 1991. This celebrity loco was withdrawn a few months later, but was reinstated with the engine from 50046, and so lived on until the end of the class on the mainline in 1994. This section of line is virtually dead straight all the way from Basingstoke to Farnborough and was well known for fast running in the last days of Southern steam.

After reversing at Exeter St. Davids, the Pathfinder Tours '50 Terminator' railtour is seen here passing through Totnes, hauled by 50007 Sir Edward Elgar & 50050 Fearless, running as the 1Z07 13:17 Exeter St. Davids to Penzance on 26 March 1994. This was the farewell tour to the Class 50s on the mainline. Ironically I turned up at this spot to see 50031 Hood return to the mainline in Autumn 1997 in similarly perfect sunny conditions.

A real blast from the past! 50008 Thunderer approaches Ufton Crossing with the 1B74 12:23 Paddington to Paignton service on 16 September 1978. The loco had only been named two weeks previously, and was to wait another year before the ship's crests were added. It is still in unrefurbished condition, and at this time less than half way through its career on the national network, having being transferred from the London Midland Region to the Western Region two years before as a replacement for the Class 52 'Westerns'. This was one of my earliest railways photos, taken using a Praktica PLC2 and Kodachrome 64 film.

50008 Thunderer speeds through Radley station with the 3A88 09:00 Oxford to Old Oak Common empty newspaper vans on 16 August 1987. Although the load of four empty vans may seem a ridiculous use of a Class 50, this train was actually booked for a pair of 50s, and indeed this is one of the few occasions I saw a single loco on it. The use of two locos was purely to get them back to Old Oak Common for the Monday morning rush hour trains. 

50008 Thunderer leaves Oxford with the 1F45 11:00 Network SouthEast fast service to Paddington on 21 October 1988. Strangely 50008 had been allocated to the DCWA engineers pool a couple of months prior to this picture and should therefore have been restricted to low speed departmental workings. Admittedly this was the last day that I saw it operating regular passengers trains, although of course in 1991 it was repainted into 'Laira Blue' and became a railtour locomotive. Note the revised shape crest above the nameplate, which was applied in 1986.

I do not normally bother photographing light engine convoys, but with one of my favourite Class 50s providing the power this one just had to done, despite the gloomy weather. Passing the site of Coalpit Heath station on 25 May 1991, celebrity pair 50008 Thunderer & 50015 Valiant haul 31511, 37904, & 37889 from Bristol Bath Road to Coalville, where all the locos would be on display at the open day. At this time both 50s were in the NWXC (Network SouthEast reserve) pool. In June 1991 they were both transferred back into the DCWA departmental pool, from which they had both been taken to be repainted into these one off liveries in January 1991. However, in their second time in the DCWA pool they did virtually no departmental work.

Shortly after sunset on 23 November 1991, 50008 Thunderer & 50015 Valiant pass through Bodmin Parkway station with the 1Z37 14:20 Newquay to Manchester Piccadilly 'Valiant Thunderer' railtour. Geoff Hudson, the BR area fleet manager who did so much to maintain the Class 50s during their last years at Laira can be seen standing up inside Thunderer's cab.

50009 Conqueror makes a smoky departure from Oxford with the 1F07 07:08 Oxford to Paddington Network SouthEast service on 1 August 1986. Despite being loco hauled, this was a not an express service, taking 80 minutes to reach the capital, and calling at Radley, Didcot, Cholsey, Goring & Streatley, Pangbourne, Tilehurst, & Reading. Before the large car park was constructed on the site of the yard on the right in the 1990s, I used to visit this location frequently, often getting there at the crack of dawn (as here)!

A dull day at Wolfhall on the Berks & Hants Line on 2 July 1985 sees 50010 Monarch heading east with 09:32 Penzance to Paddington service. Monarch is one of the few 50s that I have only got a few pictures of, and I certainly never saw it when it had its blue roof whilst in 'large logo' livery. This was carried out at Landore Depot in 1983, allegedly because they hadn't got the correct paint!