Shed View - 56036 and other locos seen at the Old Oak Common open day in 1990
<b>Old Oak Common open day - 13th Nov 1990</b>  - Railfreight liveried 56036 can be seen in the winter sunshine in the sidings outside the famous Factory at Old Oak Common depot. The locomotive was one of the Class 56s based at Westbury for use on the Yeoman stone trains back in the 80s. These were the trains that first saw the appearance of General Motors locomotives 59001-04 back in the 1980s - a clear sign of times to come later with a GM takeover of freight trains in the UK. A small number of Class 56s [5603x, 5604x from memory] were allocated to the Western Region to initially cover these stone trains.

The loco wasn't on display, but were captured on a walk around the shed, parked up for the weekend. <b>I do love the assorted detritus that was a common sight at sheds / depots at the time - and only a nod to H&amp;S :)</b>

<b>56036</b> carries the insignia of Trainload Freight - Metals. [see Railfreight history below]

<b>The Class 56</b> fleet was introduced between 1976 and 1984, a total of 135 examples were manufactured. The first 30 locomotives (56001 - 56030, factory classification LDE3500) were built by Electroputere in Romania, but these typically suffered from poor construction standards and many were withdrawn from service early for extensive rebuilding before re-entering revenue service. The remaining 105 locomotives were built by British Rail Engineering Limited (BREL) at Doncaster Works (56031 to 56115) and Crewe Works (56116 to 56135).

The entire class passed to English Welsh &amp; Scottish (EWS) in 1995, when it purchased the Loadhaul, Mainline Freight and Transrail Freight companies from British Rail. Withdrawals commenced in the 1990s, with the last withdrawn on 31 Mar 2004. Some were reinstated for use on construction trains connected with the LGV Est in France, although all such locomotives have now returned to the UK.[

In September 2011, DB Schenker (as EWS had become) placed its remaining 33 stored class 56s up for sale with most expected to be sold for scrap. However, UK-based locomotive provider Europhoenix tendered for three of the DB Schenker locomotives (56018, 56115, 56117) for export to Hungarian freight operator Floyd. They finally bought 56101 (from preservation), 56115 and 56117. With 56101 moving to Europhoenix, 56018 has been sold to preservationist Ed Stevenson. 56101 arrived in Hungary on 19 Jun 2012 with 56115 and 56117 following later in the year. These have been renumbered 0659-001-5, 0659-002-3 and 0659-003-1 respectively.

In late 2011, DB Cargo UK sold 27 Class 56s for scrap to European Metal Recycling. These were 56006, 031, 032, 037, 038, 046, 049, 051, 058, 060, 065, 069, 073, 074, 077, 078, 081, 087, 090, 094, 096, 104, 105, 106, 112, 113, 133. Despite the mass sale of scrap, 56078, 087, 094, 105 and 113 were sold on to Colas Rail while UK Rail Leasing has bought a number of Class 56s, to form a pool of hire locomotives.

By January 2014, Colas had purchased 11 of the type, and as of 2020, Colas Rail Freight operated 56049, 051, 078, 087, 090, 094, 096, 105, 113 and 302 on a rotating basis on all its freight movements.

<b>'Railfreight</b> was a sector of British Rail responsible for all freight operations on the British network. The division was created in 1982 when BR sought to assign particular stock and management to the evolving requirements of freight traffic.

Railfreight existed as a single unit from 1982 until 1987 as the rail freight division of British Rail. In 1987 BR's freight operations were further divided according to the type of train operated and material carried; the Trainload Freight division and its sub-sectors handled unit trains of coal, metal, aggregates, oil or petroleum, LPG, petro-chemicals, and construction materials.

Trainload Freight was the sector of British Rail responsible for trainload freight services. The division was subdivided into four sub-sectors; coal, petroleum, metals and construction.'
More on Railfreight from Wiki here: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railfreight" rel="noreferrer nofollow">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railfreight</a>

Taken with a Nikon F-501 SLR camera. <b>Scanned from the original slide transparency with no digital restoration</b>

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>
london grid diesel shed depot oldoakcommon class56 56036 depots