AS REVEALED by Railways Illustrated last year, 59001 Yeoman Endeavour, the first Class 59 – and first General Motors loco in the UK – has been repainted back into its original silver and blue livery.
Now owned by Heavy Haul Rail, the repaint on 59001 was undertaken by Arlington Fleet Services in early May and has subtle tweaks to the original livery seen on 59001-004 for the first time when they docked in the UK in January 1986.
Instead of a full bodyside Y logo, a HHR logo has been used instead while on the cant rail above the cooler grilles it says Heavy Haul Rail instead of Yeoman.
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As detailed in RI Mar 26, the Class 59s were the first privately-owned diesel locos to run on British Rail after Mendip stone customer Foster Yeoman ordered four locos to replace unreliable BR Class 56s.
In the following four decades, not only did 11 more Class 59s arrive in the UK, but the bodyshell was used for the 480-plus Class 66s that also arrived in the UK between 1998-2014. Many were also sold in Africa and Europe, some of the latter have also now moved to the UK.
The pioneer 59 was outshopped from Eastleigh just in time to run light to work for its first engagement at the Severn Valley Railway’s May 14-17 diesel gala. This was appropriate as some 38 years earlier, it had visited the SVR where it became the first Class 59 to work a passenger train, in May 1988.
