24th July 1997

For a short while the Mendip Class 59s were trialed on Llanwern to Port Talbot iron trains, in an effort to find a modern alternative to what was considered to be unreliable traction being used at the time, namely my beloved Class 56s! So, ARC Class 59 no. 59103 "Village of Mells" is on top of the 6B60 18.55 Llanwern to Port Talbot empties as it passes through the station at 19.00. The trial lasted a while but they were not drafted in permanently. I suppose all this testing eventually lead to the Class 66, in an indirect way.