My favourite loco:
37 422 Robert F. Fairlie, by Charlie Hulme
The Class 37 diesel electrics were designed and built in the
1960s by English Electric, and classified as 'Type 3' based
on their engine rating of 1750 bhp. For many years the
class was an uncommon sight on London Midland metals, a
famous exception in the 1970s being the daily Harwich
– Manchester boat train which brought an Eastern Region loco
to Manchester.
Fast-forward to the 'Thatcher years' of the mid-1980s when
'modernisation plan' rolling stock from the 1950s was
becoming life-expired, and money for new DMUs was scarce. A
programme was devised to refurbish Class 37s, by then mostly
used for freight services except in the Scottish Highlands.
The BR passenger business was authorised to include in the
programme 31 locos which would be provided with circuitry to
provide power to electrically-heated carriages. Examples
from the later-built batches of the class were chosen. These
were classed as 37/4, and were turned out by Crewe Works in
1985-86, all in the then-new 'large-logo blue' livery. 37
401 to 37 425 went to Scotland where they took over from
older 37s on Highland duties based at Eastfield and
Inverness depots. 37 426 to 37 431 were for Cardiff Canton
depot, to work North West England – South Wales expresses
and through trains from London and Birmingham to the
Cambrian lines.
Fort William
My first extended experience of the type was in 1987 when we
spent two weeks in a cottage at Corpach alongside the entry
lock of the Caledonian Canal, and we had many happy journeys
and took many photographs. Among the locos then in
service on the West Highland was 37 422, which arrived at
Eastfield depot in January 1986 and stayed on West Highland
passenger and freight duties until 1989 when Class 156 units
took over all workings except the Fort William leg of the
Caledonian Sleeper. Unlike most of the other Scottish 37/4s,
it was never named during this period.
Manchester Victoria
The 37/4s saw use on various duties over the next few years,
finding themselves allocated to the Railfreight sector,
although they also appeared on passenger trains, especially
when the new Class 153 DMUs were taken out of service with
door-locking faults. In the spring of 2003, Regional
Railways North West, after finding themselves
allocated fewer new Class 158 units than they had hoped,
decided to institute several 37/4-hauled diagrams on the
North Wales Coast line, including the Manchester – Holyhead
'Irish Mancunian' service. 37 422 was one of a batch of
37/4s hired from what had become 'Transrail Freight' and
based at Crewe Diesel Depot.
Stockport
They also saw service on the peak-time 'Club Trains' between
Manchester/Liverpool and Blackpool/Southport. Rolling
stock for the 4- or 5-carriage North Wales trains was mainly
early Mk2 vehicles with some refurbished Mk1s. Initially,
most workings were between Crewe and North Wales, but later
some were extended to Birmingham, running one way round the
Soho loop line to avoid a run-round manoeuvre at Birmingham
New Street.
Bangor (Peter Hutchinson/MLS)
37 422 entered service as D6966 in 1965, becoming 37
266 in 1973 and finally 37 422 on rebuilding in 1986. It
gained celebrity status on 3 May 1993 when, repainted in the
colourful Regional Railways livery, it worked a special
train from Crewe to Blaenau Ffestiniog for a ceremonial
naming to Robert F. Fairlie, Locomotive Engineer
1831-1885, with one of the Ffestiniog Railway's
Fairlie-designed locomotives in attendance.
Over the next five years I made many journeys on the
37-hauled North Wales trains, and when in 1996 I had
the opportunity to create World Wide Web pages, I took the
opportunity to set up a site celebrating these marvellous
trains. Against all odds, this website
(www.nwrail.org.uk) outlived the replacement of the
37/4s by 175 units and is still going, 21 years later! Since
then there always been at least one loco-hauled diagram in
North Wales – at the time of writing there are two diagrams
on Mondays – Fridays, one to Cardiff and the other to
Manchester, with Class 67 power.
Why is 422 my favourite? Others come to mind, notably 37 408
Loch Rannoch which famously retained its large logo blue
livery after all the others had been repainted, and caused a
when EWS repainted it in their livery and left off the
nameplates, only to replace them after protests by
enthusiasts. Many North Wales railfans will probably choose
37 429 Eisteddfod Genedlaethol which worked the
first and last trains of the North Wales 37/4 era. But I
remember 422 for several journeys on the 'Irish Mancunian'
after it had been transferred from Manchester Victoria to
start from Stockport and serve Piccadilly. The train ran
empty-stock from Chester to and from Stockport via the
Cheshire Lines route.
January 2001 saw the 37/4s finally displaced from regular
North Wales passenger work, later than planned thanks to
many troubles with the new Class 175 DMUs. 37 422
worked its last North Wales turn for First North Western on
19 May 1999, and moved to South Wales where it worked mostly
on the Cardiff - Rhymney and Bristol – Weymouth passenger
routes until October 1999 when it was placed in store, only
to be revived, and re-named Cardiff Canton, in February
2003. Soon afterwards it was transferred to a
'tactical reserve'. By then it had passed out of my
consciousness, although it did make a couple of appearances
on the Friday-evenings-only Cardiff to Manchester train when
ran for a while. At that period it was also a favourite for
use on railtours with EWS haulage, usually
double-heading with another 37/4.
Eventually it was placed in storage by EWS in September
2008, and I thought I'd never see it again. But miracles can
happen.
Norwich
422 was one of several locos bought by DRS in 2011, and
after a complete overhaul by the Harry Needle company at
Barrow Hill it re-entered service (nameless) in 2015 working
passenger trains in East Anglia, where the Greater Anglia
company was suffering a chronic shortage of DMUs for the
local lines from Norwich to Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft.
422 also made some appearances on the Cumbrian Coast
passenger workings, as Dave's pictures prove.
At the end of 2016 my wife and I took a short break in
Norwich, and enjoyed a pleasant journey or two behind what
is undoubtedly my favourite British loco.
(Thanks to Mick Parker's class
37.co.uk for historic data)
|
37 422 IN CUMBRIA
Pictures by Dave Garrett
As a supplement to my 'favourite
loco' article in The Mancunian (reproduced opposite), Dave
Garrett has kindly supplied a selection of images of
37 422 at work for DRS on the Cumbrian Coast passenger
services in 2015 and 2017. Sadly, this era of
loco-haulage on the line ended in December 2018. - Charlie
Hulme.
2C47 Preston - Barrow. passing Park House Farm, Roose. on 8
October 2015.
On 9 October 2015 with mini snowploughs waiting to
depart from Barrow with 2C49 for Carlisle.
37 422 leaves Kirkby-in-Furness under heavy skies for
Carlisle with 2C49 on 9 October 2015.
37 422 heads for Barrow carriage sidings after
arriving from Preston with 2C47. 37 401 Mary
Queen of Scots waits to depart with 2C49 to Carlisle.
Sometimes the train from Preston would continue to Carlisle.
Again heading for the sidings, 26 October 2015. The
carriages were fitted with vertical bars to the drop-lights
to prevent anyone leaning out, especially with regard to the
restricted clearances on part of the route.
Departing Ravenglass for Carlisle, 11 April 2017.
66 433 takes failed 37 422 back to Kingmoor
passing Park House Farm on 18 April 2017.
37 422 now minus mini-ploughs waits to depart from Barrow,
24 May 2017.
37 422 propels 2C33 Carlisle to Barrow out of Askam,
25 September 2017.
Unusually arrived at Carlisle bay platform 2, rather
than the normal platform 1, working 2C41 from
Barrow on 25 September 2018.
Cumbrian Coast Class 37 diagrams Winter 2017-08
Monday - Friday
Diagram 1
5C32 05:03 Carlisle Kingmoor Sdgs(DRS) - Carlisle
2C32 05:15 Carlisle - Preston
2C47 10:03 Preston -Barrow-in-Furness
5C47 11:42 Barrow-in-Furness -Barrow C.S.
5C41 14:25 Barrow C.S - Barrow-in-Furness
2C41 14:37 Barrow-in-Furness - Carlisle
2C42 17:37 Carlisle - Barrow-in-Furness
5C42 20:38 Barrow-in-Furness - Barrow C.S.
Diagram 2
5C33 05:34 Barrow C.S. - Barrow-in-Furness
2C33 05:46 Barrow-in-Furness - Carlisle
2C40 08:42 Carlisle - Barrow-in-Furness
2C49 11:40 Barrow-in-Furness - Carlisle
2C34 14:35 Carlisle - Barrow-in-Furness
2C47 17:31 Barrow-in-Furness - Carlisle
5C47 20:52 Carlisle - Carlisle Kingmoor Sidings (DRS)
Saturday
Diagram 1
5C32 05:03 Carlisle Kingmoor Sidings (DRS) - Carlisle
2C32 05:15 Carlisle - Barrow-in-Furness
2C41 08:45 Barrow-in-Furness - Carlisle
2C48 11:56 Carlisle - Lancaster
2C31 17:31 Lancaster - Barrow-in-Furness
5C31 18:48 Barrow-in-Furness - Barrow C.S.
Diagram 2
5C33 05:34 Barrow C.S. - Barrow-in-Furness
2C33 05:46 Barrow-in-Furness - Carlisle
2C40 08:42 Carlisle - Barrow-in-Furness
2C45 11:38 Barrow-in-Furness - Carlisle
2C34 14:35 Carlisle - Barrow-in-Furness
2C47 17:32 Barrow-in-Furness - Carlisle
5C47 20:52 Carlisle - Carlisle Kingmoor Sidings (DRS)
The Cumbrian 37/4 story
The story begins in early 2015, when Northern Rail found
itself very short of trains after the Department of
Transport in its wisdom had taken away come of their class
156 units for use by another company. The Cumbrian Coast
line from Barrow to Carlisle,, although generally rural, has
high levels of peak-time use, notably by staff of the
nuclear installations at Sellafield, and serious
overcrowding was occurring.
DRS, based in Carlisle, which is part of the nuclear group
and owned - in the end - by the Government, had
experimented with a loco-hauled service for Sellafield in
2012, and also worked the temporary shuttle service between
Workington and Workington North following flood damage to
the town's bridge in 2009-10.
In 2015 the Department of Transport agreed to subsidise two
weekday diagrams on the line, powered by DRS 37/4s
(initially top-and-tailed, later push-pull with a driving
trailer vehicle originally converted for the Glasgow -
Edinburgh service. Operation began in May 2015, and was
immediately popular with enthusiasts - less so with
customers due to late running and loco failures. The
air-conditioned Mk2 coaches featured the DfT logo on
the sides in addition to Northern. In March 2018 one
of the diagrams was turned over to a pair of Class 68s, but
this was short-lived; one of the diagrams was replaced by
156 units later that year and a single class 37 diagram
continued until 28 December when enough Class 156s were
released by Scotrail. A 'Farewell Special' ran on 11 January
2019, just before the lease of the stock expired, using 37
409 and 37 425.
Last update April 2019. Comments
welcome: website@manlocosoc.co.uk |