50002 & 50003 Oxford 26 July 1987

Consecutively numbered 50002 Superb & 50003 Temeraire are pictured leaving Oxford with a ridiculously easy load on 26 July 1987. They are working the 3A88 09:00 Oxford to Old Oak Common empty newspaper vans, a working that was booked for double headed Class 50s purely as a balancing move, as such a featherweight load is obviously a waste of the use of even a single 50. This is one of my favourite pictures of the many I took at this location in the 1980s. Note the two signal engineers attending to the outermost signal on the gantry. Close inspection of the original 6x7 transparency shows that they have got the back off the up through road 'feathers'.