50001 Dreadnought & 50032 Courageous pass through the remains of Chacewater station on 27 April 1979 with an unidentified up working. The station closed to passengers in 1964, but the Blue Circle cement works lingered on into the 1980s. A Class 45 is just visible in the siding on the background.

50005 Collingwood pictured at its home depot of Laira, in the company of 46016, on 17 April 1979. The distinctive design of the shed is instantly recognisable, even without the totem style sign on the side of the building, which appears to have gone missing.

Work stained 50007 Hercules passes through St Austell station on 20 July 1978 with a lengthy van train. Note the presence of various coaches, vans and wagons, and the resident Class 08, which was used to shunt Motorail stock. The footbridge stills survives, but virtually everything else in this picture is now history, except of course Hercules, which after many years as a green locomotive named Sir Edward Elgar, is now back on the main line in this guise, only cleaner!

50008 Thunderer glints in the late evening sunshine as it passes Langham (near Ivybridge) with the 6A21 16:40 St Erth to Acton milk tanks on 11 June 1979. The conveyance of milk from the West Country by rail was only destined to last for another year. Thenceforth it would be road tankers on the M5. Such is progress!

50009 Conqueror stands at Newton Abbot station on 18 July 1978 with an unidentified southbound working. The loco had been named two months earlier. Like most Royal Navy names, Conqueror has been used repeatedly, with ten vessels carrying the name since 1745. 50009 is allegedly named after the 1911 battleship. The most recent recipient of the name was the submarine that sunk the Argentinean cruiser General Belgrano in the Falklands War.

50012 Benbow looks like it had seen better days, when pictured at Laira depot on 27 February 1979. With missing roof, windscreen, and headcode panel, it almost looks ready for the scrapman, but was obviously just undergoing maintenance, as it was back in action a few months later.

50013 Agincourt calls at Bodmin Road on 17 July 1978 with a down working. The Class 50s may be long gone from the area, but luckily Bodmin Road (now called Bodmin Parkway) still retains this fine Great Western Railway footbridge.

Neatly framed by the overhanging branches and rustic gate, 50013 Agincourt passes Powderham with a down working on the evening of 2 September 1980. With the exception of the catering vehicle and the BG at the rear, the train is composed entirely of Mk2 air-cons.

50013 Agincourt passes a field of cows at Spetchley on 28 April 1984, as it heads north with a 10.40 Bristol Temple Meads to Glasgow relief. This was in the days when the railways could provide a short notice additional train, a level of flexibility that is impossible with today's fragmented network.

Sun, snow and Class 50s. With three classmates stabled in the sidings on the extreme right of the picture, 50014 Warspite leaves Newton Abbot station on 6 January 1979 with a southbound working. Only the most basic track layout remains here now.

50014 Warspite leaves Taunton station on 21 July 1984 with a westbound working. The impressive signal gantry was removed two years later. The large building on the left has also been demolished, to bereplaced by the inevitable housing development.

50015 Valiant passes the site of Devonport Junction on 22 February 1979 with an up working. The former LSWR line which diverged here to serve Devonport Kings Road station closed to passengers in 1964, and freight seven years later.

50017 Royal Oak rounds the curve at Teignmouth on 23 July 1984 with the 1A48 11:05 Paignton to Paddington 'Torbay Express'. I stand to be corrected, but I think the train only carried this rather improvised headboard for one week.

50018 Resolution passes Rose-an-Grouse (near Hayle) on 26 July 1978 with the 1B24 07:30 Paddington to Penzance service. The location's unusual name is a corruption of Resincrous, which means ford of the cross in the local Cornish language.

Stop, Look and Listen! 50020 Revenge stands underneath a fine display of semaphore signals at Taunton on 7 August 1978. Note the smaller calling on arms underneath each home signal. These allow permissive working within station limits, to allow a second train into an already occupied platform.

50021 Rodney stands at Plymouth (North Road) station on 17 April 1979 with an unidentified up working. 50021 had been named at the nearby Laira depot the previous year, and followed in the footsteps of LMS Jubilee 45643 in being named after the Royal Navy battleship.

Pre health and safety days at Garsdale on 15 April 1974. Passengers from the Wirral Railway Circle 1L81 09:03 Crewe to Alston 'Alstonian' railtour wander alongside (and across) the tracks in order to secure their pictures of 50023 during the train's booked photo stop. 50023 worked the train between Crewe and Carlisle, from where an eight car DMU rake took over. This was the first occasion on which a Class 50 worked a railtour.

50028 Tiger takes the Torbay line at Aller on 3 July 1979 with the 1B90 14:30 Paddington to Paignton service. The loco seems to have sustained some rather localised bodyside damage above the nameplate area. The very strange 1930s built triple naved St Luke's church dominates the background.

50028 Tiger crosses Largin Viaduct on 18 April 1979 with an unidentified eastbound working. Clearly visible in the background are the two tracks merging into a single track to cross the viaduct. Photography is made difficult here by the plantains of coniferous trees on both sides of the valley of the River Fowey.

50028 Tiger passes the site of Defiance Platform on 13 May 1979 with the 6A21 16:40 St Erth to Acton milk tanks. Defiance Platform was opened by the Great Western Railway in 1905, principally for use by sailors at the torpedo training school on HMS Defiance, moored at nearby Wearde Quay.

50029 Renown passes Hemerdon on 2 February 1979 with an unidentified train from Paddington. 50029 had been named a few months before, in common with a number of Class 50s, at Laira without any ceremony.

50033 stands at Keyham station on 31 May 1978 with the 16:35 Plymouth to Penzance service. 50033 was named Glorious the following month. Although Keyham station is still open, and the footbridge survives, unfortunately the characteristic GWR brick built station building has now been demolished.

50036 Victorious is surrounded by vintage six wheel milk tanks, as it shunts at Lostwithiel on 20 April 1979. The creamery was a major employer in the town, and traffic was clearly still busy in 1979. However rail traffic ceased in 1981, and the creamery closed ten years later.

50037 passes St Budeaux on 16 April 1978 with an unidentified westbound working. The oil soaked and tatty locomotive would have been largely ignored by a lot of enthusiasts at the time. However, interest would start to increase once the class was named. 50037 received its Illustrious name a few weeks after this picture was taken.

50037 Illustrious crosses Plymouth Dockyard Viaduct on 2 April 1979 with the 12:45 parcels train from Penzance. This will be split at Plymouth (just a few minutes away), with traffic going forward to either Crewe or Paddington. The distinctive roofline of a Ford Anglia can be glimpsed over the wall in the foreground.

A fine panoramic view of Worcester, as 50037 Illustrious leaves the city on 19 May 1980 with the 1C40 15:00 Paddington to Hereford service. Directly behind the train is the eighteen century St Nicholas church. In the centre of the picture is the early nineteenth century neo-Norman St Clements, and on the right is the tall spire of St Andrews.

A pair of Hoovers on the milk! 50038 Formidable & 50048 Dauntless pass St Budeaux on 18 June 1978 with 16:10 St Erth to Action milk tanks. Although a very interesting train to photograph, it was unfortunately backlit for virtually all of its journey.

High summer at Dawlish, and the holidaymakers are making full use of the beach, as 50038 Formidable sweeps through the station on 28 July 1984 with the 1V76 09:36 Liverpool Lime Street to Penzance service. The original Kodachrome slide reveals a fine collection of classic cars parked in Marine Parade, including an Opel Manta, Triumph Dolomite, Mini Clubman, Hillman Imp, and nearest the camera, a yellow Renault 4.

The as yet unnamed 50040 passes Devonport Junction on 4 March 1978 with an unidentified down working. Unfortunately this grubby loco, with the rail blue livery graduating from brown dirt to black soot, is all too typical of the class during the late 1970s.

50040 Leviathan approaches Worcester on 2 May 1980 with the 1C40 15:00 Paddington to Hereford service. Note the casual attitude to the railway boundary on the right, with carefully tended vegetable plots extending from the gardens of the nearby houses, right up the edge of the slope down to the track, without any kind of fence!

With a background like this, it could only be Cornwall. 50041 Bulwark passes the engine house of a long closed tin mine at Scorrier on 27 April 1979 with an unidentified working. In the early nineteenth century the 'Scorrier Penny' was issued, as a form of local currency for the tin miners.

Although designed principally as a 100mph passenger loco, Class 50s were nevertheless often used on freight workings. 50044 Exeter is pictured passing through Totnes station on 21 March 1979 with a loaded ballast train.

50044 Exeter passes through Plymouth Dockyard station on 22 March 1979 with a ballast train, presumably from Meldon Quarry. Dockyard station was opened by the Great Western Railway in 1905 as a railmotor halt.

With the vast baulk of Langstone Rock dominating the background, 50045 Achilles rounds the curve on the approach to Dawlish Warren on 13 April 1979 with an up working. The wasteland on the right is now a car park.

50045 Achilles passes a superb collection of semaphore signals, as it heads north at Tiverton Junction on 14 July 1985 with an unidentified working. This picture is taken from the end of Tiverton Junction's up platform, a location that was lost the following year with the closure of the station, after it was replaced by nearby Tiverton Parkway.

A rainy day at Liskeard on 30 May 1979. 50047 Swiftsure arrives with an unidentified up working. Semaphore signalling still survives here, but the sidings and the Class 50s have long gone. Also, there are far more trees now, blocking out most of the view of the houses in the background.

50047 Swiftsure passes Spetchley on 12 March 1985 with the 1V90 10:47 Glasgow to Penzance service, which it had taken over at Birmingham New Street. This is the northerly end of the Spetchley loops, both of which were still extant in 1985.

50048 Dauntless approaches Keyham on 30 May 1978 with a train from Penzance. Weston Mill Viaduct can be seen in the background, and the trailing connection to the Devonport Dockyard branch with attendant ground frame is prominent in the centre of the picture.

50049 Defiance passes Bredicot on 12 April 1984 with the 1V90 13:20 Liverpool Lime Street to Plymouth service, which it had taken over at Birmingham New Street. Earlier in the day it had worked to Birmingham with the 1M85 07:40 Penzance to Liverpool Lime Street train.

50050 speeds through Keyham station on 31 May 1978 with a westbound service, probably, judging by the angle of the sun, the 1B82 13:30 Paddington to Penzance. Unfortunately the clumps of Valerian (Centranthus ruber) on the side of the cutting have now been replaced by full size trees, making this view impossible.

Still unnamed 50050 leaves Bodmin Road on 17 July 1978 with an up working. The loco was named Fearless a few weeks later. At this time the line to Boscarne Junction and Wenford was still open for freight traffic.