59001 Yeoman Endeavour ambles along the down relief line at Waltham St Lawrence with the 6A11 10:05 Acton to Merehead Foster Yeoman stone empties on 5 March 1988. To modern eyes the mix of up to date high performance locomotive and vintage 4 wheel PGA hopper wagons looks a little out of place, but a large proportion of the Foster Yeoman stone trains used these wagons for a number of years after the introduction of the Class 59s.

59001 Yeoman Endeavour & 59103 Village of Mells pull away from Dawlish station with the 1Z96 07:52 Bristol Temple Meads to Paignton Mendip Rail 'English Riviera Special' railtour on Bank Holiday Monday 3 May 1999. This was the annual railtour for Mendip Rail staff. With 6,600hp and 227,100lb of tractive effort available there were no problems with haulage capacity here, as an eleven coach load is a modest load for even a single Class 59.

59001 Yeoman Endeavour passes Dauntsey on 16 March 2000 with the 7C67 Wootton Bassett to Merehead Mendip Rail stone empties. As was quite common at the time it was running very early, passing me at 09:55 a full hour before it should leave Wootton Bassett!

59001 Yeoman Endeavour pulls slowly out of Woodborough loop with the 7A09 07:05 Merehead to Acton Yard 'jumbo' stone train on 27 October 2003. The three portions of this 3000 tonne train can clearly be seen, with different wagon types indicating the destination, Crawley (front), Purfleet (middle), & Brentford (rear). Although most of the day was sunny, this morning started misty, and although the sun had been out while the 59 was sat in the loop, there was only a trace of brightness when the train departed.

Running over two hours late, 59001 Yeoman Endeavour & 59202 Vale of White Horse pass Wootton Rivers on 24 April 2009 with the 7C31 09:45 Theale to Merehead Mendip Rail stone empties. The delay was caused by a tree falling across the line near Midgham. 59202 was under test after its failure the previous week.

59001 Yeoman Endeavour passes the site of Patney & Chirton station on 11 May 2009 with the 7A09 07:12 Merehead to Acton Mendip Rail stone train. Not so long ago this was the morning 'Jumbo' train with three lengthy portions. The recession in the construction industry means it isn't quite as 'Jumbo' in 2009!

59002 Yeoman Enterprise slowly negotiates Hallen Marsh Junction on 25 June 1993 with the 6C31 10:15 Henbury to Merehead stone empties. This temporary flow was in connection with the  construction of the approach roads to the second Severn Bridge. The end of the original Severn Bridge can just be seen in the extreme left of the picture. Note the mixed rake of Foster Yeoman and ARC hoppers. Unfortunately the forest of semaphore signals at this location had been removed a few years previously.

59002 Yeoman Enterprise works wrong line past Brentry on the Avonmouth to Filton line, with the 6C31 11:34 Henbury to Merehead stone empties on 25 June 1993. This short term contract was to bring stone in from the Mendips for the construction of the approach roads to the new Severn Road Bridge, which was opened three years later.

Newly named 59002 Alan J Day & 59004 Paul A Hammond stand at Cranmore on the East Somerset Railway on 21 June 1996 after having just been unveiled by their namesakes from Foster Yeoman. After all the guests had all gone to a special lunch, I managed to get this uninterrupted view of the two newly renamed locos. This is a very rare picture of 59002, as it shows it with the nameplate and cast number plate in opposite corners to the standard position. This was a temporary measure in order that both locomotive's nameplates would be adjacent for the unveiling. Foster Yeoman's fitters were just about to reverse the position of the plates prior to the locos working the special train of invited guests back to Euston.

On 21 June 1996, newly named 59002 Alan J Day & 59004 Paul A Hammond catch the evening sun at Little Bedwyn as they head back to Euston from Cranmore with the specially invited guests from the double naming ceremony on the East Somerset Railway. Foster Yeoman had chosen to rename the locos (formerly Yeoman Enterprise & Yeoman Challenger respectively) after company members, although this came as a surprise to those involved at the ceremony, as it wasn't their own names they were expecting to see when they pulled the chord!

59002 Yeoman Enterprise passes Shrivenham with the 7C48 12:38 Appleford to Whatley stone empties on 17 December 2007. Unfortunately this was just as the sun disappeared behind a cloud, although luckily it was only thin and there is still some light. This location is getting progressively more difficult, as the lineside bushes on the right now cast shadows over the line in the winter.

59002 Yeoman Enterprise passes Fairwood in superb light on 14 October 2009 with the 7V64 12:57 Bow to Merehead stone empties. This is returning from the site of the Olympic stadium construction site, which we have been faithfully promised by our politicians (they wouldn't lie, would they?), will be ready in time for the games in 2012. I will update this caption nearer the time!

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.

59003 Yeoman Highlander finds a brief patch of weak sunshine as it passes East Grimstead (between Salisbury and Romsey) on 19 March 1992 with 1800 tonnes of stone on the 6O52 Merehead to Eastleigh Foster Yeoman service. The Orenstein & Koppel built JHA bogie hopper wagons had only recently been introduced into the Foster Yeoman fleet and replaced the four wheel PGA wagons with which the Class 59s were initially associated with when introduced in 1986.

With nameplates covered, 59004 & 59002 stand at Cranmore on the East Somerset Railway on 21 June 1996 waiting for the guests to arrive prior to be renamed Paul A Hammond & Alan J Day respectively. They were formally named Yeoman Challenger & Yeoman Enterprise. Note that the nameplate on 59002 has been temporarily applied to the 'wrong' end in order to have both loco's plates next to each other for the unveiling.

59004 Paul A Hammond passes Manningford Bruce with the 7C77 12:40 Acton Yard to Merehead empty 'jumbo' stone train on 12 April 2007. This is an ideal location for photographing westbound trains in the afternoon, but totally useless for anything coming the other way due to overhead wires close to the bridge and lineside trees and bushes.

59004 Paul A Hammond approaches Hungerford with the 7A09 07:12 Merehead to Acton Yard Yeoman 'jumbo' stone train on 30 July 2007. This was a very lucky picture, as not only was it in a very short sunny spell (note the clouds building up in the background), but a Class 180 unit on a down working which would have blocked the shot had only just disappeared around the corner!

59004 Paul A Hammond is pictured near Crofton with the 6A74 09:22 Whatley to Theale Hanson stone train on 24 July 2008. The Crofton Pumping Station and its tall brick chimney can be seen in the distance. Built to supply water to the Kennett & Avon Canal, it houses two magnificent Cornish beam engines, one of which (an 1812 Boulton and Watt) is the oldest working beam engine in the world still in its original engine house and capable of actually doing the job for which it was installed.

59005 Kenneth J Painter passes Kintbury on 2 April 2007 with the 6V18 12:43 Hither Green to Whatley stone empties. The location is next to the Kennett & Avon Canal, and is an excellent spot to observe westbound trains in the afternoon.

59005 Kenneth J Painter passes Waltham St Lawrence with the 7A09 07:12 Merehead to Acton Yard Yeoman 'jumbo' stone train on 27 July 2007. You can clearly see the three portions on this train, which will be split to serve different destinations once the train reaches Acton. While watching the 59 approach, I could hear an HST approaching from behind, which while not completely blocking the shot would certainly ruin the picture. Luckily as the 59 was moving so slowly and the HST was going so fast, it has turned a  near disaster into a pleasant passing shot.

59101 Village of Whatley passes the Rover car works at Swindon with the 6A43 06:59 Appleford to Whatley ARC stone empties on 26 October 1992. The car plant manufactures car body panels, opening as Pressed Steel Fisher in 1954 and trading under various names since then, culminating in Swindon Pressings Ltd. The photo was taken from a very conveniently placed footbridge that crosses the Great Western Main Line next to Highworth Junction.

In crisp autumnal light, 59101 Village of Whatley & 59001 Yeoman Endeavour pass Bourton (near Swindon) with the 1Z30 09:08 Castle Cary to Stratford-on-Avon Mendip Rail private charter on 17 October 1998. Class 47/7 47736 can just be seen on the rear of the train providing heat. Unfortunately the sunny weather did not last and arrival at Stratford was in very poor light.

59101 Village of Whatley rounds the curve at Great Cheverell with the 6V18 12:39 Hither Green to Whatley Hanson stone empties on 9 April 1999. Note the mixture of ARC and Hanson liveries amongst the wagons. This picture demonstrates one of the pitfalls of using a Pentax 6x7 rollfilm camera and ISO 100 film. Although the loco and front part of the train is pin sharp, there is not enough depth of field on a 200mm lens to cover the background. I suppose some people would say it throws the subject into sharp focus (excuse the pun), but personally I would have liked to had the option for a little more depth of field, 35mm style.

59101 Village of Whatley passes the site of Patney & Chirton station with the 7A09 07:12 Merehead to Acton Yard Yeoman 'jumbo' stone train on 9 August 2007. Even though the station was closed in 1966, the footbridge survives marooned in the fields on a little used footpath. This is the view looking west from the bridge, with the space on the right marking the site of the Devizes branch lines. The station had four platforms, which explains the extreme length of this footbridge.

59101 Village of Whatley approaches Stocks Lane Level Crossing at Steventon on 29 September 2009 with the 6C54 13:13 Oxford Banbury Road to Whatley Mendip Rail stone empties. Didcot Power Station can be seen in the background. Of course it was full sun when I left the house, but naturally that turned into virtually 100% cloud cover when I got to the line! I know a lot of people will not take photos in such conditions, but I think the results are often quite satisfactory, especially when, as here, careful use of Photoshop has retained plenty of sky detail rather than the awful  'missing sky' effect that one often comes across on Fotopic sites.

The as yet unnamed 59102 heads along the down main line at West Drayton with the 6V98 Hothfield to Whatley ARC stone empties on 22 June 1991. For once it was lucky that the sun wasn't shining, as this picture is taken from the north side of the line. Note the red flag across the down relief line, both slow lines being closed for engineering work.

59102 Village of Chantry passes Fairwood (near Westbury) with the 6Z20 09:45 Whatley to St Pancras stone train on 11 September 2007. The train is just accelerating away from a short 20mph restriction under the bridge in the background, caused by track repairs following severe flood damage a couple of months previously. Note the mix of ex RMC (at the front) and ex National Power (at the rear) hoppers in use on this train.

The 7A09 07:12 Merehead to Acton Yard Mendip Rail 'jumbo' stone train wasn't quite so jumbo on 23 November 2007, with only one of the normal three portions making for a very short train. 59102 Village of Chantry rounds the curve near Aldermaston past a number of trees still showing some good autumn colour. Note the stone dust blowing out of the last wagon.

59102 Village of Chantry passes the site of Patney & Chirton station on 11 May 2009 with the 7C77 12:40 Acton to Merehead Mendip Rail stone empties. Until the trees were felled at this location in 2008 this view was totally impossible. Note also the slightly modified bridge in the background. I suppose it makes a change from the usual complete replacement.

59103 Village of Mells passes Hemington on 4 January 1997 with the Pathfinder Tours 1Z59 05:27 Bristol Temple Meads to Sudforth Lane 'G.M. Gyrator' railtour. Freezing cold and with no chance of any sunshine, it was still worth the effort to travel this far for the sight of an ARC 59/1 well off the beaten track. It is traversing the Stenson Junction to Sheet Stores Junction freight line, prior to heading north to Yorkshire for travel over even more obscure freight lines

59103 Village of Mells passes through Newbury Racecourse station with the 6V18 12:39 Hither Green to Whatley ARC 'Jumbo' stone empties on a cloudless 25 June 1999. Note the mix of ARC and Hanson liveried wagons in the consist. Newbury Racecourse station was opened in 1905 and for a long time was only used on race days. With the building of the large industrial estate that can be seen in this view it was made into a calling point for the local stopping services which currently work through to Bedwyn.

In the pouring rain on 3 May 2004, 59103 Village of Mells comes off the Frome line at Clink Road Junction with the annual Pathfinder / Mendip Rail excursion, this time heading for Littlehampton, and ironically given the prevailing weather conditions titled 'Sunny South Express'! 59101 can clearly be seen on the rear of the train (the train would shortly reverse at Westbury). Although the rain does add a little atmosphere to the picture compared with just a cloudy day, keeping the camera dry in such conditions is a major preoccupation!

59103 Village of Mells approaches the site of Ashbury Crossing, near Shrivenham on 19 April 2007 with the 6C53 12:59 Oxford Banbury Road (Kidlington) to Whatley Mendip Rail empty stone train. Note the fresh green foliage and spring blossom on the trees, which makes an ideal foil for photography, before the drab all over green look to the landscape in May and June.

Surprisingly I have very few pictures of trains in the loops at Uffington (between Swindon and Didcot). It's a bit late now as they are not there any more! On 8 July 1992, 59104 Village of Great Elm waits in the up loop with the 6M24 04:35 Whatley to Wolverton ARC stone train, while a HST speeds past on the down line. 6M24 was booked to wait in the loop between 09:26 and 09:45 to allow the 08:45 Bristol Temple Meads to Paddington, 07:32 Swansea to Paddington, and 08:10 Worcester Shrub Hill to Paddington to overtake it.

59104 Village of Great Elm passes the remains of Shrivenham station on 4 September 1992 with the 6M24 04:35 Whatley to Wolverton ARC stone train. It will soon be entering the loop at Uffington (since removed), where it will be overtaken by the 08:45 Bristol Temple Meads to Paddington, 07:32 Swansea to Paddington, and 08:10 Worcester Shrub Hill to Paddington HSTs. Admittedly when this picture was taken 59104 had only been in traffic for less than two years, but even so note how clean it is, particularly the underframe. Obviously loco washing was a high priority at Whatley!

ARC 59104 Village of Great Elm passes Berkley with the 6C26 12:45 Southall Yard to Whatley stone empties on 12 October 1994. At this time there was a problem with some of the Mendip Rail wagons, hence the use of the hired in Tiphook KPA wagons seen here. Berkley (between Westbury and Frome) is an excellent location for railway photography, as all the traffic for the Mendip quarries passes this way, and the view in both directions is unobstructed.

Typical, you go to a location where there is an uninterrupted view of the line, so that the whole of the lengthy 'Jumbo' stone train will be in view, and then it leaves two thirds of it behind! Running with only one portion and therefore hardly justifying the title 'Jumbo', 59104 Village of Great Elm passes Brimpton with the 7A09 06:56 Merehead to Acton Mendip Rail stone train on 8 May 2008.

59104 Village of Great Elm rounds the curve at Wootton Rivers with the 7C77 12:40 Acton to Merehead Mendip Rail empty 'Jumbo' stone train on 24 April 2009. Although it was sunny when I left home, the further I drove south the hazier it became and after an hour spent by the lineside at Wootton Rivers the sun had virtually disappeared. Full sun all day was the Met Office forecast!

59104 Village of Great Elm passes Fairwood with the 7A15 17:08 Merehead to Acton stone train on 14 October, while the tail end of 7V64 hauled by 59002 can just be seen in the background disappearing under the bridge at Fairwood Junction.

With South Anston church just visible on the horizon, 59201 Vale of York passes Dinnington with the Pathfinder Tours 1Z59 05:27 Bristol Temple Meads to Sudforth Lane 'G.M. Gyrator' railtour on 4 January 1997. It is just approaching Dinnington Colliery Junction on the Shireoaks to Doncaster freight line. Given the appalling freezing weather conditions, it is surprising that the tour was only running 20 minutes late at this point, and even more surprising that it managed to recover this lost time later on in the itinerary.

59202 Vale of White Horse passes through the newly completed Ashchurch station with the Pathfinder Tours 1Z45 06:38 Sheffield to Llandrindod Wells 'Central Wales Navigator' railtour on 26 May 1997. The tour was 20 minutes late leaving Sheffield, and had not managed to recover any time at this point, and in fact the late running persisted all day. The station opened the following week, and was built on the site of the much more extensive junction station that closed in 1963.

59202 Vale of White Horse passes Fairwood (near Westbury) with the 6V07 09:21 Chichester to Merehead stone empties on 11 September 2007. The name of the loco might seem appropriate here, but it does not in fact refer to Westbury's white horse which can be seen in the background, but to the one at Uffington, which predates the Westbury horse by at least 3000 years!

59203 Vale of Pickering passes Froxfield with the 7A17 10:30 Merehead to Acton Mendip Rail stone train on 24 July 2008, running nearly an hour early. Note the use of wagons hired in from Freightliner at the head of the train. Unusually on this day the normally very reliable 7A09 07:12 Merehead to Acton 'Jumbo' stone train had been cancelled due to lack of a loco! Unfortunately Froxfield is another location where the growth of lineside bushes is ruining the picture. Various viewpoints around the Kennett & Avon Canal lock (just visible on the left) used to be possible.

National Power 59204 passes Burton Salmon with the 6D92 11:30 Drax to Ferrybridge limestone empties on 25 October 1995. After witnessing the success of Class 59s in service with Foster Yeoman and ARC, National Power ordered a slightly modified locomotive in 1994, followed by a further five locos the following year. All were initially painted in the striking National Power blue livery, although it is questionable whether white was the best colour choice for the underframes of a heavy freight loco. However when clean (as here) the sub-class certainly looked impressive.

An exceedingly rare location for a National Power Class 59. On a dull misty 16 November 1996, just as it was getting dark, 59204 passes through Barry station en-route from Yorkshire to Aberthaw Power Station, where it would be named Vale of Glamorgan by the then Welsh Secretary, William Hague MP. The choice of location was ideal, as not only is it an immediately identifiable location with the added bonus of semaphore signalling, but also in view of the grim weather the train's slow speed through the station meant I was able to take this picture in colour as well as the more appropriate to the conditions black & white. However the exposure was only 1/125sec with the lens wide open!

59204 Vale of Glamorgan passes Crofton on the Berks & Hants line with the 7A09 06:56 Merehead to Acton Mendip Rail "jumbo" stone train on 21 November 2006. The last of the autumn leaves on the trees and the hawthorn berries show up well in the early morning light. Unfortunately the Class 59/2s now looking similar to their inferior Class 66 cousins since being repainted into EWS livery, although of course no way could a Class 66 handle a train of this length and weight, half of which is still around the corner behind the bushes.

59205 L Keith McNair passes Kelvedon with the Pathfinder Tours 1Z42 14:35 Lowestoft to Crewe 'Freightliner Phoenix' railtour on 12 May 2001. This tour, which had started out as the 1Z41 03:58 Crewe to Lowestoft did not actually use any Freightliner traction at all, so was slightly misnamed! At this point the tour was running 75 minutes late, but at least that meant that the angle of the sun had improved, resulting in near perfect lighting when it eventually did appear.

With plenty of power available, 59206 Pride of Ferrybridge makes light work of Tackley Bank (between Oxford and Banbury) with the Pathfinder Tours 1Z37 05:40 Reading to Preston 'Multi Coloured Swap Shop' railtour on Bank Holiday Monday 30 May 2005. At 06:26 you can get the sun on the nose for a northbound shot! The tour was running exactly to time here, but a little further north, at Leamington Spa, the tour came to a stand for 45 minutes due to the farcical situation of neither the driver or the pilotman signing the road!

59206 Pride of Ferrybridge approaches the site of Wantage Road station, near Grove with the 6C53 12:59 Oxford Banbury Road (Kidlington) to Whatley Mendip Rail empty stone train on 26 March 2007. Pride of Ferrybridge is hardly an suitable name, now that the loco is based in the south of England, rather than Yorkshire. 59202 Vale of White Horse would have been much more appropriate traction for this location!

The new DB Schenker livery is certainly not the most tasteful design to be applied to the Class 59s (or anything else for that matter!), but it definitely shows up, even when severely backlit as here. 59206 John F. Yeoman Rail Pioneer plods slowly past the site of Patney & Chirton station on 11 May 2009 with the 6A13 Whatley to West Drayton Mendip Rail stone train.

A very rare passenger working for a DB Schenker Class 59/2. 59206 John F. Yeoman Rail Pioneer passes Baulking on 13 June 2009 with the UK Railtours 1Z58 07:08 Paddington to Carmarthen 'Thames-Towy' railtour. Classmate 59205 can just be seen on the rear of the train. The weather forecaster's promised cloudy start would have been welcome here, instead the sun decided to come out resulting in virtually impossible lighting conditions, with the sun directly behind the train. Much careful use of layers in Photoshop has turned a near silhouette into a reasonable picture.

59206 John F. Yeoman Rail Pioneer passes Little Bedwyn with the not quite so jumbo 7A09 07:12 Merehead to Acton Mendip Rail 'Jumbo' stone train on 8 October 2009. A fraction of its normal length, for once the whole train is visible under the bridge. Note the hedge to the right of the lock, which has all but ruined the shot looking the other way from the bridge in the background, and is hardly improving this picture, with the shadows reaching the wagons.