Mendip Rail

Foster Yeoman purchased its own fleet of 140 12-ton wagons in 1923, to take advantage of the fact that the Great Western Railway line ran adjacent to Dulcote Quarry.

[6] General Motors' bid was ultimately successful, in particular because their proposed design, derived from the EMD SD40-2, was equipped with the well-proven Super Series creep control, which allows superior traction at very low speeds.

[6] The contract with General Motors was signed in November 1984 and the new locomotives, built at the GM plant in La Grange, Illinois, were shipped across the Atlantic in January 1986.

[13] On 26 May 1991 Kenneth J Painter (59005) (with assistance from Yeoman Endeavour) set the European haulage record, with a stone train weighing 11,982 tonnes and 5,415 feet (1,650 m) long.

The main differences are a revised layout for the headlights and marker lights, and modifications to the suspension to permit the maximum speed to be increased to 75 mph (121 km/h) (if required in the future) with the fitting of yaw dampers.

[15] To better manage their fleet availability and scale needs, Hanson ARC and Foster Yeoman founded Mendip Rail in 1993.

The eight locomotives display four different liveries: Mendip Rail's class 59s work services between various destinations which have changed over time according to demand and specific contracts.

They have worked regularly over southern railway tracks, for example to the former Foster Yeoman terminals at Eastleigh and Botley, as well as delivering aggregates for construction work on the Thames Barrier, Second Severn Crossing, Channel Tunnel and most recently Heathrow Terminal 5, which required 3 million tonnes of stone.

[23] The runaway train consisted of a shunter hauling sixteen loaded stone wagons, weighing a total of 1,700 tones.

The crew had attempted to stop the train by applying the shunter's direct air brake; however, this was overcome by the momentum of the moving wagons.

Trap points, which might have prevented the runaway from leaving the sidings and joining the branch line, had not been reset after the departure of the mainline train.

[24]: 4 At approximately 02:40 the two locomotives hauling the 7A91 Merehead Quarry to Acton Terminal Complex train derailed at East Somerset Junction between Westbury and Castle Cary.

[25] At 17:50, 7Z15, the 1705 Merehead Quarry to Acton Terminal Complex train, derailed at East Somerset Junction between Westbury and Castle Cary.