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50049 rededication
By 1974 the northern WCML had been electrified, and the Class 50 fleet was being transferred to BR’s Western Region to work main line passenger services out of London Paddington.
The Class 50’s 50s did not originally carry names, but in the late 1970s BR agreed to their being named after Royal Navy vessels with notable records in the First and Second World Wars.
Withdrawal of the class began in the early 1990s.
In November 2006 shareholders in Project Defiance agreed to a merger with [[The Fifty Fund]], owners of two other Class 50s and operators of a third, to form [[The Class 50 Alliance]]. Ownership of 50049 passed to the new organisation.
After the a railtour of on 18 October 2008, Defiance underwent a bogie and wheelset overhaul.The loco was taken out of traffic in 2013 following the discovery of leaking cylinder liners. A top end power unit rebuild was carried out, along with replacement of the main and ETH generators with overhauled ones.<ref>[http://www.fiftyfund.org.uk/index.php/our-locomotives/50049-defiance Fifty Fund] (retrieved 21 January 2018)</ref> 50049 completed its overhaul in April 2016 in time to work passenger services during the April 'Open House' weekend.
===50049 Defiance on the main line in preservation===
