Mendip Rail

The railhead at Torr Works

Mendip Rail is an independent freight operating railway company in the Great Britain. It is composed of the rail-operation divisions of Foster Yeoman and Hanson Aggregates (previously ARC).

The company operates aggregates trains from the Quarries of the Mendip Hills in South-West England to London and South-East England. The Foster Yoeman quarries are at Torr Works and Dulcote quarry, while Hanson has plants at Batts Combe quarry and Whatley quarry.

The company operates four Class 59/0 diesel locomotives owned by Foster Yeoman (59001-59005 excluding 59003) and four Class 59/1 diesel locomotives owned by Hanson Aggregates (previously ARC) (59101-59104).

Mendip Rail own Merehead Traction Maintenance Depot (Merehead TMD) where the above eight rail locomotives are allocated, and can also be seen at Hither Green Traction Maintenance Depot (TMD) for heavy maintenance

Origins

For full article, see British Rail Class 59

59001 Yeoman Endeavour at Doncaster Works in revised Foster Yeoman livery on 27 July 2003.

As a result of poor reliability of the various locomotives used by British Rail to haul the stone trains from the West Country, with availability of the Class 56 locomtives from May 1984 as low as 30%, and only 60% of trains running on time; Foster Yeoman began negotiations with British Rail to improve service. Having already supplied their own wagons with a reliability level of 96%, Foster's suggested to British Rail that they could operate their own locomotives. British Rail's problem was the hard tie-in and control of the Rail Unions, but accepted the principle.

Foster Yeoman issued a tender document which request 95% reliability. It is untrue that British rail refused to tender, but withdrew having conceded that they had nothing which was of the required combination of power and reliability. Having already operated a General Motors switcher in the Merehead Quarry, Fosters were pleased when General Motors returned with a response. Derived from the EMD SD40-2, the AWD and cab layout were taken from the British Rail Class 58 to make driver assimilation easier. To meet the British loading gauge, a considerable amount of re-design work and compromises were required, but it was possible to retain the well proven Super Series Creep Control (that allows superior traction at very low speeds), which eliminated double heading. Foster Yeoman therefore reduced their original requirement from six to four locomotives, and subsequently ordered four 59/0 in November 1984, and a fifth in 1988. All five locomotives were custom built by General Motors, La Grange, Illinois, USA, plant in 1985 and 1989.

In their first ten years of operation the five locomotives between them hauled over 50 million tonnes of aggregates away from Merehead.

Class 59/1 – Hanson ARC

Built by General Motors Diesel Division at their London, Ontario, Canada, plant in 1990. The four Class 59/1 locomotives owned by Hanson (parent company of the former owners ARC) are similar to the Class 59/0 locomotives of Foster Yeoman. The main differences being a revised layout for the head lights and marker lights and modifications to the suspension to permit the maximum speed to be increased to 75 mph, if required in the future, with the fitting of yaw dampers

Merger and operations

To better manage their fleet availability and scale needs, Hanson ARC and Foster Yeoman founded Mendip Rail. Although Foster Yeoman and Hanson plc remain competitors in the quarrying and asphalt business, they work together to make the most efficient use of their locomotives. The assets are still owned by the parent companies and the staff seconded

The eight locomotives display four different liveries:

• old Foster Yeoman livery
• new Foster Yeoman livery
• Hanson livery
• Mendip Rail livery

Subsequently Mendip Rail has obtained Train Operating Company status. 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 metals, most notably to the Foster Yeoman terminals at Eastleigh and Botley and Channel Tunnel construction work

Traction Rolling Stock

All based at Merehead TMD

• Foster Yeoman

59 001  Yeoman Endeavour
   002  Allan J Day 
   004  Paul A Hammond
   005  Kenneth J Painter

• Hanson

59 101  Village of Whatley
   102  Village of Chantry
   103  Village of Mells
   104  Village of Great Elm