50049 Defiance entered service in December 1968 as D449 and was named Defiance on 2 May 1978. Part of the 1987 freight experiment, the locomotive was renumbered to 50149 and spent two years working china clay and heavy aggregate trains before reverting back to being numbered as 50049. Retired from service in August 1991, 50049 Defiance was preserved by The Class 50 Society (later Project Defiance), first at the West Somerset Railway and then the Severn Valley Railway, before Project Defiance merged with The Fifty Fund to form the Class 50 Alliance, to whom ownership of the locomotive passed to in November 2006.
The Class 50 Alliance frequently partnered with GB Railfreight to operate class 50 locomotives on the national network and in January 2019 two locomotives, 50007 and 50049 were taken on hire by GB Railfreight and painted in the familiar GBRf blue and orange livery.
Technical Specification & Detail
Finish Standard
Length 275mm
DCC Ready
Era 11 (2014 +)
Minimum Curve R2
Age Suitability 14+
Motor 5 Pole Skew Wound