BR Class 50 50049 Defiance
Contents
BR Class 50
Fifty English Electric Type 4 (later BR Class 50) diesel locomotives were built by English Electric at their Vulcan Foundry Works plant in Newton-le-Willows between 1967 and 1968. When built they were numbered in the D4xx series. They later became BR’s Class 50, being allocated TOPS numbers in the 50xxx series. The class was nicknamed “Hoovers” because of the distinctive sound of the inertial air-filters with which the locomotives were originally fitted.
Initially the locomotives were used to haul express passenger trains on the West Coast Main Line (WCML) between Crewe and Scotland; that section not then being electrified. This often entailed ‘Multiple Working’, with two locomotives under control of a single driver.
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 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.
50049 Defiance in Service
D449 entered service at Stoke in December 1968. Renumbered to 50049 in January 1973, the locomotive moved to Bristol in May 1974.
In May 1978, 50049 was named Defiance after the Royal Navy's torpedo school.
In 1987, 50049 was involved in an experiment to use Class 50 locomotives on freight trains. To that end it was re-numbered as 50149, equipped with modified Class 37 lower-geared bogies, and out-shopped in trainload grey livery with Railfreight decals. Based at Plymouth Laira, two years was spent working china clay trains in Cornwall and heavy stone trains from Devon quarries to London. By 1989 the locomotive has reverted to 50049, being withdrawn from service by BR in August 1991.
50049 Defiance in Preservation
50049 was bought for preservation by Project Defiance. Following an overhaul at AWS in Cardiff, it moved to the West Somerset Railway where it was repainted into the Railfreight Distribution two tone grey livery as 50149. Defiance left the WSR to attend the SVR Diesel Gala in 1999, and remained at the SVR thereafter. A year later, in BR Blue livery as D449, it participated in its first mainline with 50031 Hood (as D431) on the Celtic Hoover Railtour in September 2000.
Project Defiance has now merged with The 50 Fund, owners of two other Class 50s and operators of a third, to form The Class 50 Alliance.
As of January 2016[update], 50049 is coming to the end of an overhaul and is likely to be in service for the 2016 season, and has undergone several test runs.
Links
Class 50 Alliance web site
50 Fund web site (still maintained)