The Class 59 locomotives were the first General Motors (GM) product to be employed in the UK and this was as a result of the Somerset-based quarrying firm of Foster Yeoman being dissatisfied we way of motive power. It therefore decided to go its own way and ordered four class 59 locomotives from Electro-Motive Division (EMD) of La Grange, Illinois, USA in  November 1984  for evaluation. So successful were these locomotives that further examples were ordered by FY and by their rivals Amey Roadstone Corporation (ARC) and later National Power.

The original four 3600 HP co-co locos reached these shores on 21st January 1986, followed by a fifth at a later date.

During acceptance trials on 16 February 1986, locomotive 59001 hauled a train weighing 4639 tonnes – the heaviest load ever hauled by a single non-articulated traction unit.

Although the author was not directly involved with the testing & commissioning of these locomotives they were around at the RTC in early 1986 when they were undergoing acceptance testing and we were doing other things with Sprinters.

Click on the picture for a bigger image - pictures are the author's unless otherwise credited

The deployment of these locomotives by Foster Yeoman lead in turn to a second order from the Amey Roadstone Corporation (ARC) for four class 59/1 locos which were delivered to UK in October 1990. This was followed by five more locos for National Power. Much later major orders for variants of the class 59  were placed by EWS, Freightliner and DRS and these became known as the class 66 locomotives, which continue to be delivered.

Eventually ARC and Foster Yeoman amalgamated to form Mendip Rail but ARC was bought out by Hanson whose livery the 59/1 locos carry today.