Class 70 locomotives operated by Freightliner are, in 2011, the newest to run on British rails. Their appearance is quite different to anything that has gone before and, predictably, the majority of enthusiast opinion that I have read is unfavourable and has largely concluded that they are simply ugly. That will change; just look at the veneration which greets every wheel turn of the once despised class 60.

I find them to have a sturdy workmanlike appearance and it cannot be denied that they sound a lot better than any other of the new generaion of locomotives running around. At the time of writing I have taken very few photographs of the class but this will inevitably change as more of the class come on stream and are seen in different parts of the country.

	Class 70 locomotives appear now and again on 4O02, the 11.11 Freightliner service from Lawley Street to Southampton but on Saturday 14 April, 2012 a numerically sequential pair, 70008 + 70009, were allocated to the train. I hadn't previously seen double-headed 70s so, even though the weather wasn't brilliant, went to Hatton for a photograph. It was about five minutes after the booked time that the pair came around the curve from Hatton North Junction with the visible part of the train well loaded, although there were empty flats towards the back of the consist. Only 70008 was under power and I imagine that 70009 was being taken to Southampton to replace 70018 which suffered an on-board fire earlier in the week. In the past, this train was usually double-headed and I have photographed pair of classes 47, 57 and 66 together with various combinations of the three over the years.
	The Saturday morning 4O02 Lawley Street to Southampton leaves the Birmingham site at 11.11 but because of its circuitous routing through Sutton Park takes just over one hour to reach Hatton. On 10 March 2012 the clouds over Stratford-upon-Avon had just about cleared by 11.45 so I went to Hatton in the hope of taking my first sunny picture of a class 70 there. As I drove through the countryside heavy cloud again began to blow in from the south-west and on arrival in the station park the light was just as bad as it had been a couple of hours earlier. The only positive things were that 70018's train was well loaded as it came around the curve from Hatton North Junction and that the locomotive hadn't failed as it had recently on a previous journey along here.
	I had been out during the morning of 21 February 2012 and on returning home at 11.00 found a message on my PC to the effect that brand new 70018 working the 07.00 Birch Coppice to Southampton Freightliner service had failed near Widney Manor, between Solihull and Dorridge. A text message arrived a few minutes later saying that 66416 had run from Lawley Street to Dorridge via Coventry and a reversal at Leamington Spa to effect a rescue. I didn't know the exact situation so went straight to Hatton to await the train which was by now close to four hours late. The up line had been completely blocked by the failure and I assumed that once 66416 had been attached to 70018 it would take the train into Dorridge up loop to allow the passenger services behind it to get on with their journey. I was wrong and the first southbound train that I saw was the 'liner coming around the curve from Hatton North Junction. Unbeknown to me at the time was the location of a down freight, the 08.50 Eastleigh to Stud Farm, 6M26, which was right under the roadbridge as 66416 + 70018 passed by. Luckily, the northbound train was moving very slowly having been checked by adverse signals otherwise some profane language might have been heard...
	I had just arrrived at Leamington Spa station on Friday 3 February 2012 when the signal for the up main line was cleared to green. Within a few minutes 70001 appeared coming around the curve from the Coventry branch with 4O27, the 05.40 Garston to Southampton Freightliner service, running in the region of ten minutes early. The driver opened the regulator to bring the heavy train onto the main line and the resulting exhaust smoke is clearly evident, although the accompanying sound, sadly, isn't; these new diesel locomotives are quite noisy when under power.
	At the time of writing, 25 October 2011, the best bet for a photograph of a class 70 running north on the Leamington Spa to Birmingham line is on the occasions that one is diagrammed for 4M28, the 09.32 to Southampton to Ditton Freightliner. The weather was much better than had been forecast for early afternoon so I went across to the south end of Hatton cutting in the hope of getting a decently lit record shot as 70007 climbed the bank. I had seen no reports of the train's progress but heard it coming something like ten minutes early on the booked time. Class 70s are quite noisy but the sound seemed to be taking quite a long time to reach me and it wasn't hard to deduce that 4M28 had been routed into the Down Goods Loop to allow a Chiltern Railways class 168 to pass it. The sun was just coming out of some cloud as the train went by on just about the only piece that a picture of something in the loop is possible.
	Class 70 locomotives have recently become quite frequent visitors to the Leamington Spa area on either early morning runs to Southampton or evening trains coming north, the latter being routed via Coventry along the largely unphotogenic line from Leamington. On Friday 24 June I received a text message saying that 70008 was working 4M28, the 09.32 Southampton to Ditton Freightliner which runs via Hatton where it is due at around 13.15. I didn't read the message until 12.55 thanks to being in my garden without my 'phone but soon established that 4M28 was running late. This gave me time for a fast drive followed by a quick walk/jog to Hatton North Junction, hopefully to arrive before the train. In the event I made it with nearly twenty minutes to spare; 4M28 following a couple of sections behind a down Chiltern Railways class 168 unit. Unfortunately, the train was very poorly loaded on this occasion and I really don't find empty Freightliner flats at all satisfying to photograph, but I think that this was the first northbound run of a class 70, in daylight at least, along this section of line. I always consider these early workings to be worth a shot in case diagrams change and the locomotives end up on different duties in other parts of the network.Thanks to David Weake for the information on 4M28.
	Class 70s don't seem to have worked much in recent weekends but on Saturday 28 May 2011 70008 was allocated to work 4O27, the 05.26 Garston to Southampton liner. This train passes Hatton at around 09.10 and this fitted in nicely with my plan for an early walk around some of the footpaths between Hatton, Budbrooke and Warwick. One never knows how long these new locomotives will work these trains before moving on to a different set of diagrams so it's worth making time to obtain a shot or two. I reached the footbridge at the south end of Hatton cutting just after 09.00 and heard 70008 powering down Hatton Bank a few minutes later. The light was dreadful and certainly a lot less favourable than when I photographed the same locomotive a couple of weeks earlier.
	Freightliner's new class 70 locomotives are currently seen on the GWR line between Birmingham, Leamington Spa and Reading on a daily basis. On Friday 13 May 2011, 70008 was allocated to the 07.00 Birch Coppice to Southampton train which is here seen approaching Fenny Compton. There is not much point in being north of Leamington Spa for this working on a sunny morning as the sun is completely wrong for it hence my making the short trip here for it, unlike last week when it was sufficiently cloudy for a shot of it at Hatton. If a class 70 happens to be allocated to a later train, such as 4O49, then a shot at Leamington Spa is just the job. I had considered the bridge at Whitnash, just south of Leamington Spa, but thought that the deep cutting there would not have allowed the sun onto the track at the time that the train was due. Given that the shadows had only just cleared the track here I made the right choice, I think. The early morning sun didn't last long and some ominous looking wisps of cloud were beginning to appear by 09.00 so I left. By the time I had reached my health club in Stratford-upon-Avon for a swim some 30 minutes later the cloud cover was almost complete.
	Freightliner switched around some of their locomotive diagrams during the week commencing 1 May 2011 and one of the results was that 4O14, the 07.00 Birch Coppice to Southampton, was turned over to class 70 operation. My plan for Friday 6 May was, if the weather followed the forecast, to head towards Banbury for a nicely lit sunny shot of 70009. As it happened, the day dawned cloudy but reasonably bright and as I am less and less inclined to go far for photographs in poor light just went to the bridge adjacent to Hatton station for my first shot of a class 70 on this line. The train arrived a few minutes early and even though the up line is on a falling gradient the exhaust note of 70009 could be heard for some time and above the racket from the nearby M40.
	This was my first view of a class 70, the picture having been taken at Croome Perry on 17 December 2009, not long after the first batch of locomotives had arrived in the country. The train is a 4Z60 empty power station coal running from Rugeley to Stoke Gifford. My first impressions were quite favourable in that the class gives an entirely new look to the UK railway scene and at last we have a locomotive that gives a bit of auditory entertainment; they are certainly not silent, having a powerful and deep throb to the exhaust note not unlike an HST under full power.
	I had been at Hatton on 19 February 2010 but after the train I had targetted had passed decided, rather than go home and waste the good light and snowy conditions, to drive over to Defford on the Birmingham to Gloucester line. I knew that 70003 was on the way with the Rugeley Power Station to Stoke Gifford empty coal train and that I should be able to get to the roadbridge that I had in mind in time. Croome Perry was an alternative but I thought that the sun would still be too head on there and I already have a shot of 70003 on the same train there. I had been at Defford only for two or three minutes when 4Z70 rolled quietly around the corner, having made it from the Birmingham area in not much over 35 minutes. There is currently a small permanent-way yard on the site of the station at Defford in connection with forthcoming engineering work and there was a lot of activity while I was there, with various road/rail vehicles being fired up and tested prior to the weekend's work. Some of the debris that always seems to accompany p-way work is clearly visible on the left of the up line and the new rails ready to be laid on the down line are also visible.
	The second batch of class 70s ordered by Freightliner arrived in the UK early in 2011 and some were immediately put to work on revenue earning trains while others seem to be doing very little. One of the regular trains in recent days entrusted to a brand new locomotive has been 6M12, the Portbury to Rugeley Power Station coal service, which runs early in the morning, and the return, 4V06 to Stoke Gifford. As the light around lunchtime on 3 February 2011 was close to perfect after a dull start, and as the train was running late which helps with the angle of the sun at Croome Perry, I thought that it would be good to get a picture of the locomotive while it was still in a nice clean condition. Here it is then coming under the occupation bridge in Croome Perry wood at 13.25 making it about 75 minutes late.