The last locomotives to be totally designed and built by British Rail at Doncaster Works, this small fleet of 50 locomotives were intended to be the first of many orders for the locomotives. A breakthrough in terms of locomotive design, they were a modular concept which was intended to minimise locomotive downtime. Fully accessible through the side doors, this design, built between 1983 and 1987 was intended to attract orders from abroad. The design was such that complete sections of the loco such as the electrical cubicle could be replaced on a 'one-out-one-in basis' by a spare unit held at a depot, in order to to minimise loco downtime. Intended as freight only locomotives, they were fitted with air brakes only, no Electric Train Supply (ETS) equipment and slow speed control which was necessary for the Merry Go Round (MGR) coal trains they were intended to work. 58001 was unveiled at Doncaster in December 1983.

Allocated to Toton depot, the first nine locomotives entered service in February 1984 working MGR coal trains in the Midlands region supplementing the Class 56s. Allocation to Toton was considered ideal as it was a central depot for a loco which, in reality, could be anywhere on the network and although they did make forays away from the Midlands, it was quite an unusual occurrence to see them far off route. During the miners strikes of the 1980s, with no coal trains operating, Class 58s were regularly found operating Speedlink and Freightliner trains. Occasional use on scheduled passenger services took place during the 1980s, most notably on the Birmingham/Wolverhampton-Nuneaton 'drags' alongside Class 56s when the Rugby-Coventry section of the West Coast Main Line was blocked by engineering works. Being a freight locomotive, the obvious lack of ETH and limited speed has helped restrict these kind of duties.

The fleet of 50 locomotives, upon creation of the Trainload Freight businesses, became assets of Trainload Coal which was the biggest of all the sectors operating, at its peak, over 200 locomotives and 11,000 wagons. The Class 58s remained allocated to Toton and due to the self contained nature of the Trainload Freight businesses, it became rarer to see them on anything other than coal trains.

Privatisation was looming in the mid-1990s which saw Trainload Freight split up into three 'shadow' companies before the sell off. Transrail and Loadhaul assumed responsibility for Wales, Scotland and the North of the country whilst Mainline Freight took on the East Midlands, East Anglia, the South East, Wiltshire and Somerset. Traffic flows for each of the three businesses were allocated by origin so therefore Mainline Freight picked up a portfolio of coal traffic in the East Midlands, aggregates traffic in East Anglia, the South East, Wiltshire and Somerset alongside household waste traffic in London and around Bristol and petroleum traffic in the South East and East Anglia. Reflecting this diverse portfolio, the sphere of operation for the Class 58 fleet widened and although remaining allocated to Toton, it was not unusual to find a number of locos outbased at locations such as Hither Green, Eastleigh, Didcot and Peterborough.

The Class 58s were considered part of the Mainline 'core' traction fleet alongside the heavyweight Class 37s and Class 60s, however the higher 85mph top speed saw them used on duties that benefited the higher top speed. This left the Class 60s - with a lower maximum speed of 60mph - handling the heavier, slower trains. This saw the Class 58s reaching destinations such as Harwich, Barham and Kennett in East Anglia, Furzebrook in Dorset and Ketton in the East Midlands.

With the creation of Mainline came the distinctive rolling wheels logo which was, in early 1994, initially applied as an addition to the triple grey Trainload Freight livery which was applied to most locos in the fleet. This was only a stopgap as a brand new livery was devised to give the company a distinctive brand of its own. The aircraft blue and silver livery was launched in October 1994 with the unveiling of 58050 at a freight industry event. The spread of the aircraft blue colour scheme was predominantly on the Class 58s, although a handful of Class 60s and Class 73s also received it.

The sale of all three 'shadow' freight operators to Wisconsin Central took place in 1996 and, as far as the Class 58s were concerned, there was very little immediate change in the sphere of operation. This started to change as 58s ventured further a field, at least as far as their maintenance base at Toton would allow.  As driver knowledge of the type increased, so did their operation with forays into Wales and Scotland - previously uncharted territory! At the time of the takeover, EWS made no secret of the fact that it regarded the Class 58s as the most reliable Type 5 on its books.

As the Class 66s arrived and started to eliminate the older traction in the fleet, it was anticipated that the '58s' would be unaffected with, at most, a displacement away from their current duties. As traffic losses increased, there wasn't the anticipated requirement for the sheer number of new locomotives in addition to the existing Type 5 fleets and so, 66s started to shift the 58s away from their traditional territory of MGR duties in the Midlands. 1999 came, and with a working life of under 20 years, April saw the first two Class 58s placed into storage at Doncaster TMD and as other members of the fleet became due heavy expenditure, they too were placed into storage, such was the surplus of traction. At the time it was claimed by EWS to be a move to minimise maintenance costs for the fleet until the 66s had settled down and the whole loco fleet could be re-assessed.

EWS took the decision, in 2001, to concentrate the remaining class members on duties in the South East, London and out towards Didcot. This meant the reallocation, for the first time ever since their delivery, away from Toton to Eastleigh TMD although heavy work continued to be carried out at Toton. The remaining fleet saw use on stone, oil, car and infrastructure trains as bit by bit, the fleet contracted until, by mid-2002 there were just 3 active members left in traffic. By this time, the fleet was considered uneconomic to operate and with driver knowledge becoming an issue, the decision was taken to withdraw the remaining 3 locos. September 2002 was given as the end date with two farewell railtours run at the end of August. Final withdrawal was facilitated by the temporary reinstatement of a number of Class 56s.

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Following the withdrawal of the class in the UK, EWS, through their subsidiary Axiom Rail, were extremely keen to promote the locos for export and hire abroad in a similar fashion to the Class 37 hire deal in France in late 1990s.

Early in 2003, 58041/043 were removed from the scrap lines at Eastleigh Depot for preparation for a hire deal to GIF in Spain, working infrastructure trains on the new high speed line being constructed and to supplement the Class 37 fleet with the same operator. Painted in a two tone sky blue livery, the locos moved to Dollands Moor under their own power ready for transport to Spain which took place a few days later. A further 6 locos were prepared and moved to Spain in mid-2004.

A 10-year hire deal was also agreed with ACTS - a private operator in the Netherlands - for a fleet of up to 5 locomotives to work container trains. The first locomotive was sent abroad in mid-2003 after a lengthy overhaul at Toton which included fitting Dutch signalling equipment. A second locomotive left in late 2003 and a third in mid-2005, but following delivery of new European Class 66s, all three returned to Axiom Rail in 2009 and were transferred immediately to work in France.

High speed line construction in France saw another deal struck in early 2004 between EWS and Fertis, TSO and Seco-Rail for the hire of around 45 locomotives consisting of Class 56 and Class 58s for around 2 years. The first loco left in September 2004 with the rest of the fleet following at a steady rate of around 2 per month until completion of delivery in mid-2005. The 45 British locos were used in conjunction with a fleet of ex-French locos. After completion of construction work in late 2006, the 45 locos made their way back to Britain and back into storage. The Class 56s have not worked since.

The Class 58s, however, fared better as 24 (including a number of long-stored examples) were reactivated and returned to France in 2009 for the construction of the next round of high speed lines, hired to operators ETF and TSO.