Class 50 50026 'Indomitable' seen in original NSE livery at Old Oak Common towards the end of its life on BR
<b>Memories of the fine art of Vac bashing</b>
Between 1983 and 1991 I spent many, many happy hours with my friends riding the rails behind the mighty 'Hoovers' or Class 50s. As well as enjoying the thrash, I managed to record many of the trips and railway scenes encountered on film for posterity. Those days are now long gone, but happily the photos remain for me to reminisce over and share ;)

Here is one of my favourite Vacs seen on one of my last visits to Old Oak Common in 1990 - <b>50026 'Indomitable'</b> bathed in the late afternoon sunshine. Her paintwork is looking a tad shabby - she was withdrawn at the end of the year and never received a repaint into the revised NSE colours in BR service. One of the many imported 'Duffs' that replaced the 'Vacs' on the Oxfords can be seen lurking stage right.

50026 was a particular favourite of mine, and I was very pleased when she escaped the cutter's torch at the last moment and entered preservation. 

<b>Locomotive History</b>
D426 entered service 22-Jun-68
Renumbered 50026 in 1974
Named 'Indomitable' 29-Mar-78
Withdrawn 11-Dec-90
'Indomitable' was the only Class 50 to make it out of Booth's of Rotherham alive!

<b>50026 “Indomitable”</b> was amongst a batch of nine locos sent to Booths scrapyard in Rotherham early in 1992 along with 50001, 50004, 50016, 50020, 50023, 50036, 50040 and 50045. All nine locos were part of a bid by Operation Collingwood - an engineering charity established in the early 1990s to enable young engineering apprentices to rebuild the locomotives - however, as the required funding was not forthcoming, Booths forced Operation Collingwood to choose the best five, with the others to be cut up. 50004, 50016, 50020 and 50036 were all cut up in the spring of 1992. The charity was wound up in 2002 and 50001, 50023, 50040 and 50045 met a similar fate. 50026 was the only one saved and ended up preserved on the K&amp;WVR.

Information courtesy of the website <a href="https://www.englishelectric.org.uk/50026" rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.englishelectric.org.uk/50026</a>
and Wikipedia: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_50" rel="noreferrer nofollow">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_50</a>

Taken with a Nikon F-501 SLR camera and 75-200mm zoom lens.

You can see a random selection of my railway photos here on Flickriver: <a href="http://www.flickriver.com/photos/themightyhood/random/" rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.flickriver.com/photos/themightyhood/random/</a>
class50 diesel locomotive oldoakcommon shed depot london d426 426 50026