50036 Victorious passes under the lofty Grintleyhill Bridge, near Combe with the 1B31 13:45 Paddington to Hereford service on 13 November 1988. The loco is just about to cross the River Evenlode, which the Cotswold Line encounters numerous times en-route to Moreton-in-Marsh. Note the red buffer beam. This was normally only a feature of the locos in the large logo with black roof colour scheme, and although the roof looks black here, that is just the inevitable result of four exhaust ports! As can be seen from the former headcode box it does in fact have a grey roof.

50036 Victorious speeds past Radley with the 1F35 09:30 Oxford to Paddington Network SouthEast service on 6 August 1989, a working which was officially booked for a pair of Class 50s at the time. The uniform rake of Network SouthEast Mk 2 coaches is slightly mismatched with the tatty large logo livery of the locomotive, although the red buffer beam does add to the colour scheme and did make 50036 instantly recognisable from a distance during the late 1980s.

50036 Victorious passes Iver with 1F18 12:15 Paddington to Oxford Network SouthEast service the on 22 February 1990. Although it is hauling a full rake of Network SouthEast liveried stock, the loco itself only has the addition of a NSE flash on the former headcode box to proclaim its ownership. 50036 was transferred to the DCWA engineers fleet a few months after this picture was taken, and then in early 1991 was withdrawn after a brief resumption of passenger work on the Waterloo to Exeter line.

With a little bit of snow still lying on the ground, 50037 Illustrious approaches Grintleyhill Bridge, Combe on 31 January 1987 with the 1A18 07:00 Hereford to Paddington 'Cathedrals Express'. Unlike so many trains on the Cotswold Line twenty years later under the aegis of private operator First Great Western, this train, like the majority of the loco hauled trains I photographed on the line in the 1980s was running exactly to time. Admittedly this long section of single line doesn't help when things go wrong, but it is not in itself a cause of late running as First Great Western would have us believe.

50037 Illustrious in original Network SouthEast livery with matching Mk 1 coaches, makes a fine picture as it passes under the farm occupation bridge at Walcot (near Charlbury) with the 1B33 14:00 Paddington to Hereford Network SouthEast service on 10 April 1988. Strangely this is the only photo I have ever taken at this location!

50037 Illustrious heads north past the vegetable fields in the Vale of Evesham near Bredon's Norton on 7 August 1988 with the Pathfinder Tours Swindon to Scarborough 'Yorkshire Venturer' railtour. The 50 worked the train as far as York, where it handed over to 9F 92220 Evening Star, it then traveled light engine to Hull to take over the tour for the return to Swindon.

50038 Formidable bursts out from beneath the road bridge at Evenlode while working the 1A18 07:00 Hereford to Paddington 'Cathedrals Express' on the misty morning of 25 April 1987. Although with a Class 50 there is always plenty of audible warning of its approach, this type of picture where you can't see the train until the last second is always a worry, as your timing has to be so exact.

50039 Implacable is pictured at Charlbury with the 1B46 17:07 Paddington to Hereford service on 9 May 1987. The only evidence of nearly a year's Network SouthEast operation of the route are some discreet stickers on the coaches, otherwise it is a classic Cotswold Line train, mainly composed of Mk 1 stock, with the obligatory GUV on the rear. This was before the extension to the platform, which could only accommodate less than half of this train. What would present day health & safety make of this, with a train too long for the platform and no central locking!

50040 Leviathan approaches Shipton in sub-zero temperatures on 16 January 1982 with the 10:50 Paddington to Worcester service. 50040 was renamed Centurion in 1987 upon the withdrawal of 50011. This view is no longer possible due to rampant lineside vegetation, which has also also ruined a number of other locations on the Cotswold Line.

50040 Leviathan heads south from Moreton-in-Marsh with the 08:00 Hereford to Paddington service on 25 April 1987. The view from the bridge in the background is a little restricted for southbound trains, so I decided to go for a more arty picture, by including the tree as a foreground frame. It was a very hazy morning, but the weak sun is just about casting shadows by the time the 50 appeared under the bridge.