On Route to the Mendips
Introduction
The photograph on this page of On Route to the Mendips by Martin Addison as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
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On Route to the Mendips
Image: © Martin Addison Taken: 1 Feb 2010
A class 59 brings a train of Mendip Rail stone hoppers under Kensington High Street into Kensington Olympia Station. This is an example of the many freight trains that use the West London Line. The Class 59's were a pre-privatisation example of a freight operator (Foster Yeomans) choosing to purchase its own locomotives instead of relying upon the available British Railways traction to haul its stone trains. Others followed suit - this locomotive was supplied to National Power for merry-go-round power station trains. The successors to the class 59's, Class 66 are now to be found throughout the UK Rail network in the many train operating company liveries that have sprung up since privatisation. DB Schenker Rail (UK) took over the English Welsh & Scottish Railway Company and used this loco, 59206, to display their new livery in January 2009 at the National Railway Museum. It was also renamed in keeping with its new role on the Mendip stone trains - John F. Yeoman Rail Pioneer. Thus a class 59 has sort of come full circle.
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Image Location
Latitude
51.496785
Longitude
-0.208175