Within three years of being officially formed, the Fifty Fund was responsible for three preserved Class 50s. Andy Coward spoke to co-founder Jonathan Dunster to discuss the early years of Class 50 preservation and the efforts made to ensure the Class 50 story continued beyond the British Rail years for the benefit of future generations.
All photography: Jonathan Dunster
From left to right are 50044 Exeter, 50035 Ark Royal and newly-reactivated 50031 Hood, shortly after the Large Logo Class 50 had been delivered to the East Sussex depot. Despite still having a large hole cut in the bodyside where its fleet number was located, the cab of 50044 has been painted into the earlier version of Network SouthEast livery, with 50035 carrying the later-style NSE colours.
The Class 50 Alliance is one of our leading and most respected heritage modern traction preservation groups. With six Class 50s in its fleet, it previously featured in a Preservation Profile in issue 231 of Railways Illustrated. But in the days before its merger with Project Defiance (the original owner of 50049 Defiance), and long before 50007 Hercules and 50033 Glorious joined the fleet, the Fifty Fund was responsible for blazing the trail when it came to Class 50 preservation.
These days, the Fifty Fund is the membership and support organisation of The Class 50 Alliance, which is responsible for the maintenance and operation of 50007, 50031 Hood, 50033, 50035 Ark Royal, 50044 Exeter and 50049, both at the Severn Valley Railway, and, in the case of 50007/044/049, on the main line too.
However, in the early days, the Fifty Fund quickly established itself as a professional preservation group, successfully purchasing 50035 in the summer of 1991, 50044 in October 1991, and then becoming the custodian of privately-owned 50031 by the end of 1991, giving it a fleet of three preserved Class 50s in a little over six months – quite a meteoric rise for an organisation that was only officially launched in February 1989.
Jonathan ‘Gus’ Dunster, one of the founding members of the Fifty Fund – and its long-standing chairman between 1992 and 2022 – sat down with me to discuss the early days and how a band of friends and front coach bashers got together to establish what went on to become the leading Class 50 preservation group.
In the beginning
Gus was one of a number of Class 50 front coach bashers, travelling widely behind the locomotives while
