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Accurascale BR Class 50 - BR Blue Pre-refurb 50035 'Ark Royal'

Illustrating the breadth of the Accurascale Class 50 tooling suite is 50035, one of three members of the fleet to gain plated headcode panels during 1977/8 with sealed beam marker lights along with Nos. 50003 and 50007, the latter at the No.1 end only. In January 1978 the ten-year old locomotive become the first of the newly-minted ‘Warship’ class to be honoured with nameplates following the easing of the ridiculous embargo on new namings. The Laira-allocated machine was dedicated Ark Royal after the Royal Navy’s flagship by its captain at Plymouth station, the new ’plates forcing the BR double arrows to be moved from the centre of the bodyside to the secondman’s cab side. The event also saw large replicas of the ship’s crests fitted above the nameplates. 50035 ran in this condition for several years, which included joining Old Oak Common in June 1980, before being called to Doncaster Works, emerging from the ‘Plant’ in March 1981 in large logo blue. It later gained the black roof version of the livery before being repainted in the original Network SouthEast scheme in July 1986, although not before running several turns in undercoat grey. Its BR employment came to an end in August 1990 and it was sold to the Fifty Fund the following April, the first Class 50 to be preserved with the official handover being performed by NSE Director Chris Green at the Old Oak Common open day. It was restarted for the first time in preservation exactly two years after its retirement and now returned to large logo ran the debut train of its new career at the Severn Valley Railway in October 1996. It is now part of the 50 Alliance fleet, still based at the SVR, and wears classic 1970s BR blue.