Despite having a relatively high number 56312 'Jeremiah Dixon' is

in fact the earliest and oldest survivor of the once one hundred and thirty-five strong class of locomotives. As a young spotter back in 1977 the 56s were viewed as being very modern and hi-tech (that they were of course!) and as a portent of things to come, the first thirty were manufactured abroad, in this case in Romania. Today, some thirty-seven years later it is remarkable that a number of these locomotives are still in use on the national network. Now operated by DCR the veteran diesel passes through Roade cutting as the 0Z57 12.11 Barrow Hill to Willesden light engine. Notice that I was almost bowled by the 4M20 Freightliner hence the rather head-on and portrait composition!