Class 56

• 56003 and 37324 head the 16:20 Toddington - Cheltenham past the foot crossing at Bishop's Cleeve on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway. This shot was taken at 16:51 on Friday 15th July 2005, a diesel day on which 56003 worked four round trips from Toddington. This isn't the most picturesque location on the line by any means, and Bishop's Cleeve isn't quite the idyllic rural village that the name might suggest. However this spot is perfectly lit in the late afternoon, and it offers an easy track-level viewpoint. The track is formed of welded rail on concrete sleepers at this point. According to the railway's website it may be the only such track on a preserved railway (I presume they mean in the UK).
• 56003 and 37324 again, this time returning north with the 17:20 Cheltenham - Toddington on Friday 15th July. This is the view from the Bishop's Cleeve foot crossing looking south, and the picture was taken at 17:26. The 56 has to lead because it has train air-brakes only, and the carriages are vacuum-braked. The Class 37 was included as a brake translator, although on this trip it was powering a little on the climb towards Gotherington.
• 56003 on the GWR again, this time with 73129 acting as the brake translator. They're heading the 10.20 Toddington - Cheltenham as it passes under Southam Lane on the approach to Cheltenham Racecourse. The time is 10.52, and the date Saturday 24th September 2005 - the first day of the railway's autumn diesel gala.
• Same train as the previous shot, but this time seen near Hailes. 56003 had just received a fresh coat of Loadhaul black when photographed at 10:24 on Saturday 1st April 2006. I was in the wrong spot really, the other side of the Didbrook road bridge would have been better. At that point the train was just clearing a p-way slack, and the Grid made an enormous cloud of clag to add to the steam produced by 47105's boiler. Sadly by the time the train had gone a further 60 or 70 yards and reached me most of this fug had been blown away by a brisk wind which was blowing from left to right - with the result that only a small amount is visible in the picture.
• The after-effects of a strike meant that 6V70, the Cliffe Vale - St Blazey china-clay empties, ran on the afternoon of Saturday 13th August 1994. By good fortune the train loco on this occasion was 56004, still in rail blue livery, and it was a lovely sunny day. I'd been out shooting 58002 on a Rugeley MGR train, and I turned up at Bescot just as 6V70 was leaving at about 15.25. An instant decision was required, and I decided to race it to this spot in Wylde Green on the Sutton Park line. This is a race that I'd be unlikely to win these days, but thankfully on this occasion I just made in time to get this shot at 15:50.
• 56006 climbs away from Ryecroft with 6E08 Wolverhampton - Scunthorpe. This shot was taken at 09:37 on Thursday 15th May 2003.
• 56007 drops down the incline towards Ryecroft Jct with an MGR train. This shot was taken at 11:31 on Tuesday 5th April 1994, and it's probably a Daw Mill - Ironbridge service, although I didn't confirm the exact working. Ryecroft has always been a popular spot for local photographers due to the number of different shots available, and the relatively high number of freight trains running through Walsall. This spot on Mill Lane was the standard mid-morning shot for trains coming off the Sutton Park line. It's still a relatively busy location in 2005, but not so busy as it was in previous years. More importantly the once open views have almost all been lost to tree growth and pallisade fencing. This particular shot is now barely do-able due to trees which have grown on the bank to the right of the ditch. Nowadays the best shots are probably the ones available from the path which runs south-east of the railway as it climbs the hill towards the Cartbridge Lane overbridge.
• 56032 leads the Leicester - Cardiff scrap through Bentley Heath (Dorridge) at 13:53 on Saturday 5th September 1992. The brakevan was a regular feature of this service, and was required for the shunting moves at Leicester.
• A slightly unconventional angle for this shot of 56034 as it descends towards Ryecroft Jct with 6M47 Aldwarke - Wolverhampton. For some reason I didn't record the date, but by a process of elimination I can narrow it down to either Wednesday 8th or Thursday 9th May 1996.
• This image shows 56049 and 25154 parked "up the field" at Bescot. I've got no date for this one because I re-mounted the slide, but it's late 70s or early 80s. Someone has scrawled the legend "Jake 80" in the bodyside dirt - so I guess that might just be a reference to 1980. The top of the Down Tower signalbox is visible above the Grid. Much as I like 56s, especially in BR blue, I'd have preferred these locos to have been parked the other way around in retrospect.
• 56061 climbs around Bescot Curve at 12:44 on Tuesday 9th March 1993. The train is 6T44, the Bescot - Round Oak/Brierley Hill metals trip, on this day comprising just a single BDA. This was the penultimate week of operations on the Curve, the last scheduled trains ran on Friday 19th March.
• 56077 takes the second portion of a Handsworth - Aldwarke scrap train back past the scrapyard at 15:45 on Friday 19th July 1996. The loco would have had to run-round at Queen's Head sidings, and again at Langley Green or Stourbridge Jct (I can't remember which). As I recall the first portion had already been recessed at Bescot and the two portions were combined there before heading north. This flow became a regular working, but without the portion working and routed via Snow Hill and a single run-round at Tyseley. Work on the Midland Metro trackbed was underway in the background, but it would be another three years before it opened for business. Another decade or more will have elapsed before a second Metro line is open, if one ever does.
• EWS's last operational Grid in Britain was 56078, seen here parked at Saltley depot on the morning of Sunday 4th April 2004. 56115 was also on Saltley at this time, and both locos were moved to Bescot later the same day.
• 56090 stands in Bescot Down Yard at 08:31 on the morning of Wednesday 6th October 2004. This fertis-liveried loco was en-route from Bristol Barton Hill to Toton, and it departed from Bescot in 6D44 at lunchtime the same day. At the same time as this photo was being taken 56038 was at the other end of the yard. This was another one in fertis livery; it was being shunted into 6M76 Mossend - Wembley as part of its move from Toton to France.
• 56093 was in charge of the 6V89 Doncaster - Briton Ferry coal empties on Saturday 27th April 1991. The train is seen here passing Longbridge at 11:32, running six minutes behind 20081 and 20016 on a Sheffield - Bristol railtour.
• 56115 heads a rake of four BYAs on this Bescot - Wolverhampton trip working (almost certainly 6G71). This picture was taken at 10:55 on Friday 27th February 2004. 56115 was one of the last two operational Grids working for EWS, lasting until 31st March when it worked the farewell railtour. A light dusting of snow covered the West Midlands on this morning, but it had almost all melted by 11:00.
• 56302 on 4O90 again, this time slowing for the junction at Aston on Friday 14th July. Seven containers were conveyed on this occasion, something of a big load for this train, and enough to make a worthwhile photograph for a change. Unfortunately the sun is still high enough to cast problematic shadows onto the train from the down line catenary, and it was necessary to remove them in the post-processing. This should be less of a problem from about mid-August onwards as the sun gets lower and the cast shadows climb above the train. Once again Pete Tandy covered this train - Pete's shot was taken at Berkswell. I used to go to Aston from time to time in the 1980s and early 90s to photograph 4O90, which in those days was a lunch-time Lawley St - Southampton train that used to run on Saturdays only via Walsall and Aston. For a period in the mid-80s that 4O90 could also get a 56, although it normally came off at Banbury I believe. Thanks to Pete T for confirming that I hadn't dreamt of the Grids on the old 4O90.
• This shot was taken on Thursday 10th September 2009 and shows 56303 working the 6Z57 Boston - Washwood Heath steel train. This train, and the outbound 6Z56 working, were 56303's first outing since being painted in green livery. I couldn't see from my perch, but the Grid must have been re-starting from the loop because it was screaming its head off when it passed me at 10:30.
• A shortage of serviceable Fastline 56s meant that Hanson traction locos were being used in summer 2008. This is 4O90 Doncaster - Grain, photographed on Monday 9th June. It didn't depart Doncaster until 15:30 and ran via Newark and Nottingham. A gallery of nine had assembled at Wichnor Jct by the time 56311 passed at 18:13, and we were treated to something of a horn-fest by the enthusiastic driver.
• 56312 and 66148 head north through Dunston, between Penkridge and Stafford, with a 1Z66 Bristol - Carlisle railtour. This shot was taken at 09:10 on Saturday 22nd May 2010. The 66 had hauled the train as far as Bescot, but it wasn't removed there as I'd expected. Instead 56312 was just dropped on the front for the run to Carlisle and back.