Class 37/0 to 37/4

	For a few weeks in August 2001 the long-dormant Tasker St sidings were brought back into use for the loading and unloading of engineers materials. It didn't last long, within a month or two the operation had been moved to the re-instated engineers sidings on the opposite side of the running lines - an arrangement which persists to this day. One of the visitors to Tasker St during this period was 37057, seen here at 09:15 on Friday 17th August. Metal sleepers were being loaded into the short train of OBAs and OCAs. Elsewhere in the yard are old track panels which had been unloaded from previous trains.
	37057 passes Shrivenham (near Swindon) with a 5Z23 Stewarts Lane - Caerwent (or was it Newport?) special consisting of three 4-CIG units made redundant by newer stock. This shot was taken at 14:08 on Thursday 2nd September 2004 and the units were 1907, 1803 and 1720.
	37058 and 37225 lead the 4O31 Leeds - Southampton liner through Wilnecote at 16:25 on Saturday 13th July 1996. This train was booked for a pair of 37s at the time, and was much photographed as a result. Other pairs which worked this train included 37131+37677 on 27th July, 37225+37330 on 17th August, 37884+37888 on 31st August and 37330+37677 on 7th September.
	37094 passes Golds Hill crossing with 6V69 Wednesbury - Cardiff. This photo was taken at 19:11 on Friday 5th August 1988. The load seen here is rather untypical for V69, the normal traffic being empty SPAs (see shot of 37293 below). These covered steel wagons were much more likely to head south on the morning 6V43 Margam service. The crane on the right of this shot is in Cashmore's scrapyard, graveyard of many steam and early diesel locos.
	37114 arrives at Birch Coppice Exchange Sidings with 6G36 from Bescot. Taken at 10:11 on Tuesday 22nd April 2003, with the oil seed rape in full bloom.
	37142 is seen on the climb from Dudley Port to Dudley with 9V01 Bescot - Gloucester. Behind the locomotive is an ex-works Class 08 returning from Crewe Works to the Western Region. Unfortunately I don't have the full details for this shot, which was taken (I'm almost certain) in the summer of 1989.
	37154 takes the Skako ballast train over the River Tame at 15:04 on Saturday 5th August 1995. It's just left Bescot and is about to pass under the M5/M6 junction at Ray Hall. The train was, I think, bound for Rugby because the loco was seen heading back north through Berkswell at 16:37. My notes suggest that the Sutton Park line was closed on this day, some sort of fire apparently. Whether this train ran via Aston because of the closure I don't know, but the Silverdale - East Usk coal also ran this way and I'm fairly sure that one was diverted off the Park.
	37158 trundles past Marshfield with a train of steel slabs at 10:52 on Thursday 13th June 1996. I didn't manage a positive id for this train, but I suspect it was 6B69 Margam - Llanwern. I spent quite a few days in South Wales during the mid 90s, some of it in the valleys and some on the main line. Marshfield was a favourite spot, and in 1996 there was still a reasonable amount of freight to be seen. On this particular day I only took two shots at Marshfield, the other being 47142 on 4E68 Pengam - Lynemouth which passed at 10:35. A less successful afternoon followed, my next shot being 37802+37898 at Trelewis on 7C07 Cwmbargoed - Aberthaw. Unfortunately by that time (16:34) the light had gone off a bit.
	37201 and 20075 draw out of the siding at Honeybourne with the 7G04 spoil empties to Bescot. The communication and signalling equipment is housed in the grey hut, and is worked by the train crew in conjunction with the signalmen at Evesham and Moreton, or at least it was when this picture was taken at 15:00 on Wednesday 9th August 1995. There's a shot of the outward working of this train on the Class 20 page.
	37203 stands in the down loop at Watery Lane, Tipton with a train from Scunthorpe to Wolverhampton Steel Terminal. This photo was taken at 18:07 on Friday 7th October 1988, as twilight descended over the Black Country. Glint on the loco bodyside makes a picture out of what is otherwise a poor angle, and is the only reason I took this shot.
	37207 drifts downhill from Dudley with 9V01, the Bescot - Gloucester departmental service. This shot was taken on Tuesday 13th June 1989, and the shunter behind the train engine is 08646 returning from Crewe Works to the Western Region - it was allocated to Landore at this time I think. By summer 1989 Cardiff 37s had taken over 9M01/9V01 from the Class 50s which had worked it for the previous couple of years. Just above the brakevan is Parkhead viaduct, and the distant spire belongs to St Thomas in Dudley town centre ("Top Church" to the locals - it's at the top of the High St). Thanks to Dave Gommersall for providing the number of the shunting loco and the date of this shot.
	37215 worked the 10:20 Toddington - Cheltenham on Saturday 9th April 2005, which was part of a three-day diesel gala weekend. It's seen here passing Hailes at 10:27. After a brilliantly sunny start to the day the cloud was building and a little luck was required to get a train in sun.
	There were plenty of options for railway photography on Saturday 24th September 2005. Railtours with D1015 and pair of 50s, loco-hauled trains out of Norwich, and diesel days on a number of preserved railways in the Midlands. I chose the Glos Warks Railway for its relative proximity, blue diesels and good value fares. The sunshine held out for longer than it did on my last visit in the spring, but my plan was much the same; get some pics first thing and ride the trains later on. My first shot was this one of 37215 working the 09:15 Toddington - Cheltenham, seen just south of Bishop's Cleeve at 09.42.
	The return working of the previous train was the 10.00 Cheltenham - Toddington, which is pictured here just north of Cheltenham Racecourse station at 10.05.
	37219 is based normally based at Chasewater, but spent much of 2007 working at the Glos Warks Railway. It was looking rather splendid in ex-works Mainline livery when photographed just north of Gotherington at 11:21 on Sunday 1st April 2007. This train is the 11:10 Cheltenham - Toddington.
	37220 and 37888 climb away from Ryecroft Jct at 09:50 on Friday 21st March 1997. This engineer's train had originated from Bescot, but my notes don't record the destination. The load includes 19 Seacows, and certainly merited a double-header.
	Not my best shot this, but I've included it for the novelty value. It shows 37264 working the Tuesday-only 9V01 Bescot - Gloucester, sometime in the summer of 1989. The novel thing about this train is that it's the only time I've ever seen a shunt loco in transit where the train involved has conveyed no brakevan - which probably means it was running as 8V01 on this occasion. The shunter is 08649, en-route from Crewe Works to South Wales after overhaul. The location is just south of Dudley Port (Low Level). I'd been looking for a spot where I could do a wide shot of the train and this would have been fine if I could have got higher. I was still pondering my options when the train came and made the decision for me.
	37293 departs from Wednesbury at 18:39 on Monday 4th June 1990. The train is 6V69 Wednesbury - Cardiff, a rock-solid 37 job. If the weather was good I'd often stop off on the way home from work to photograph this train. The puzzle here is what the guard is doing with his hands. Warming them in the evening sun? Suggesting that he doesn't want his pic taking? Or indicating that the train is ten minutes late? Probably not the latter, as it was running about 80 minutes early (as usual).
	37308 rounds the curve on the approach to Ryecroft Jct (Walsall) with 6P36 Burton - Bescot on Tuesday 2nd March 2004. 37047 and 37308 had returned to the West Midlands from Cornwall by working the previous night's 6M72 St Blazey - Cliffe Vale clay train. They were removed at Bescot in favour of 37667 and 37674, after which 37047 worked the Bloxwich trip and 37308 the Burton trip. After spending the autumn 2004 Sandite season working water-cannon trains out of Bescot 37308 was withdrawn from traffic at the end of the year.
	37324 coasts towards Hailes with the 09:30 Toddington - Winchcombe. This was taken at 09:33 on Saturday 9th April 2005. Originally 37099 this loco carries the same name ("Clydebridge") and number as it did during its spell at Motherwell during the late 1980s. Available as a wallpaper.
	37324 runs past Cheltenham Racecourse signalbox at 12:11 on Saturday 1st April 2006. This was the second day of a Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway's diesel weekend, and the 37 was running round its train before working the 12:20 to Toddington. The semaphores hadn't been commissioned, but the signalbox was being used as a shunt frame with the signalman controlling movements with flags.
	Earlier in the day 37324 had worked the 09:48 Winchcombe - Toddington goods, seen here near Hailes at 09:52. I did this shot at the corresponding event in 2005, when 24081 worked this train, and I liked the result so much that I was happy to repeat it with a different loco. The sky is misleading, there was rather more sun than the picture might suggest. Nonetheless I had a lot of luck with the light all day, with my first five shots all sunlit and only a couple of failures later on.
	Another shot taken on Saturday 1st April 2006. In this one 37324 is seen leaving Toddington with the 16:32 ECS working to Winchcombe. This was the last train south, and the sun was still playing ball right to the end.
	Another shot of 37324 on Saturday 9th September 2006. This was taken at 15:12 and shows the loco arriving at Winchcombe with the 15:00 Toddington - Cheltenham. Meantime 47105 waits patiently with the 14:40 Cheltenham - Toddington.
	37334 trundles along the goods loop at Burton-on-Trent with the 7D36 trip from Bescot, conveying MGR wagons for repair. This picture was taken at 10:06 on Wednesday 2nd October 1996.
	37352 arrives at Bescot with the 7G19 trip from Coton Hill (Shrewsbury). This picture was taken at 14:20 on Monday 12th August 1988. In the late 1980s revenue earning traffic was dealt with in the down-side yards at Bescot, as is the case now. But back then there was no direct access to those yards for trains arriving from the north on the main line. Consequently trains like 7G19 had to run past the yards to Newton Jct (Tame Bridge), and then reverse into the Down Reception Sidings. The same reversing move was done by 7G80 Crewe - Bescot, which on this day reached Bescot at 15:05 behind 85012. Eventually the trailing crossover on the main line just north of Bescot Jct was replaced by a facing crossover, allowing trains like these to run straight into the Down Yard.
	37358 accelerates past Coleshill at 12:46 on Monday 31st January 1994. The train is 6V14, the Saltend - Baglan Bay acetic acid tanks. At this time 6V14 also conveyed steel wagons, but they were tagged on the back and aren't visible in this shot. The Hams Hall freight terminal had yet to be built, but the Distillers sidings were still in use, hence the CO2 wagons parked to the right.
	37372 heads 6G55 Bloxwich - Bescot as it accelerates through Leamore at 13:55 on Wednesday 5th November 2003. Unfortunately 2003 proved to be the last year of regular 37s on the Bloxwich trip. The EWS loco cull of early 2004, combined with a period of low traffic volume, meant that the summer of 2004 saw very few 37-hauled trains to Bloxwich. Traffic picked up in the second half of the year, but 37s became uncommon on this job, the normal motive power being a Shed. In autumn 2004 the Bloxwich trip was retimed to run earlier (08:30-09:00 off Bescot). This is no doubt related to the fact that the Walsall steel trip no longer runs, both trips previously being part of the same diagram. By 2005 the number of EWS 37s had been reduced to single figures, with none of them based in England. Consequently appearances at Bloxwich are now rare, but not unknown.
	37401 approaches Bescot with the 7G22 Washwood Heath - Bescot trip, conveying concrete sleepers from the RMC plant in Birmingham. This photo was taken at 16:41 on Good Friday, 25th March 2005, and the exact location is the foot crossing half-way between Bescot and Pleck Jct. I'd been waiting nearly two hours for this train to appear, and with exquisite timing I'd given up as (unknown to me) the train was passing Walsall PSB. Fortunately the driver applied a short burst of power, alerting me to the imminent arrival of the train. I just had enough time to dash back and get the shot. Not quite the picture I'd hoped for - by 4:30 the shadows were lengthening and the light was only just on the nose. But there are now so few 37s in traffic that any half-decent shot is worth using.
	37401 again, this time approaching Ryecroft Jct with 6G78 Burton - Bescot on Tuesday 25th July 2006. A large gallery had gathered for this shot - inevitable given the fact that the FM coal train was due back from Rugeley at roughly the same time. 6G78 came first, and this shot was taken at 17:52. This spot was once a regular after-work shot on summer evenings for the locals, but it's done much less often nowadays and I rarely do it myself due to the palisade fence and lack of interesting traffic. In some ways it's that rare thing, a shot that's been improved by the spread of vegetation. Tree growth behind the train means that the ugly fence is now invisible, and the new houses will disappear fairly soon.
	37402 drifts through Hatton with 6Z25 Bescot - Didcot at 12:05 on Friday 14th January 2005. This engineers special was booked off Bescot at 09:00 but in the event it didn't leave until 10:30, which was fortuitous for me (and one or two others). Having not got out of bed until 08:35, and not seen the gen until nearly 09:00, I thought I'd missed this one. But with the prospect of half decent light I thought I'd call in at Bescot on the way to work just in case it was late. And late it was, the loco not appearing from the Holding Sdgs until 09:20. It then had to wait in the Up Loop for about 40 mins before the pilot loco finally shunted the wagon set onto the back of the loco. The train took 90 minutes to reach Hatton, where the watery winter sun was still shining at noon. Inevitably there were lots of other photographers out for this train, Pete Tandy's picture was taken from a spot about half-a-mile south of my position.
	37405 found its way to Bescot on Friday 6th July 2007, but wasn't used over the following weekend. Happily it was turned out for the Birch Coppice trip on Monday 9th July, especially as there was some sunshine during the morning. Here it is emerging from Walsall's Park St tunnel at 09:34. I was hoping for a bit of clag but the train was checked by the signal at Ryecroft Jct, and was therefore crawling towards the peg which is about 100 yards further on.
	37406 and 37416 shoot past Kingsbury with a 1Z56 Worksop - Aberystwyth charter at 08:47 on Saturday 9th July 2005. This was the Worksop Open Day Committee's annual outing, and they picked a fine day for it. There was some cloud and mist in the air when this photo was taken but it soon burned off. EWS have so few Class 37s in traffic now that it wasn't entirely a surprise when 37406 was used again, despite disgracing itself a couple of weeks earlier. This time it did at least have company in the form of 416, and this trip appears to have gone off without incident.
	37406 climbs away from Ryecroft with the 6G36 Bescot - Birch Coppice trip on Thursday 2nd November 2006. It was running nearly an hour late, and the photo was taken at 10.11. Having been sent up from South Wales on Friday 27th October for Cambrian engineers work, 406 spent a week working off Bescot. It didn't work the first of the two Cambrian trains, and as a result it was available to work the Birch Coppice trip on Monday 30th October - sadly a rather grey day in the West Midlands. However it did work the second Cambrian train, out Tuesday lunchtime and back Wednesday evening. After working the 6G36 diagram on Thursday it returned to South Wales in the early hours of Friday in time to work Rugby extras between Cardiff and Gloucester on Saturday 4th.
	37406 at Ryecroft again, this time heading the other way with 6G45 Toton - Bescot at 18:29 on Tuesday 1st May 2007. 37406 had taken a Class 66 dead-in-train in the outbound 6D44 working, and the return trip conveyed 66246 en-route to France. Ryecroft wasn't an easy shot at this time due to the amount of engineering equipment on site - some of it is just visible in the bottom left of this shot. Despite this I was a bit surprised to find that I was the only photographer present on a gloriously lit evening. Note how the eastbound Sutton Park line had recently been slewed to take a wider arc, the original alignment ran parallel with the westbound track. The westbound track was subsequently slewed to match.
	37406 departs from Bescot at 17:07 on Friday 13th April 2007. The train is 6W04 to Pwllheli, formed of ten ballast hoppers.
	37408 accelerates away from Water Orton with 6G36 Bescot - Birch Coppice on Thursday 21st October 2004. 6G36 has usually passed Water Orton by 09:45, but it was untypically late on this occasion and the time was 10:39. After failing on the previous Monday I managed to nail 37408 at this second attempt. On a day of squally showers and intermittent sunshine both 6G36 and the return 6G42 working passed this spot in the light, running main-line both ways. Water-cannons aside the number of 37s working out of Bescot was very low during the summer and autumn of 2004, but 37408 and 37411 took up residence in the West Midlands after coming off the Leeds - Carlisle passenger service in early October. As a consequence the Birch Coppice trip started producing 37s again on a more regular basis. 408 and 411 hung around until Saturday 11th December when they worked to South Wales and subsequently took up duties on the Rhymney line.
	37408 slows on the approach to Water Orton with the 6G42 Birch Coppice - Bescot trip on Thursday 21st October 2004. Although the outbound trip (previous pic) ran the best part of an hour late the return working was only 15 minutes or so down, passing Water Orton at 12:00. Getting this shot in the sun required almost outrageous good fortune. Fifteen minutes earlier it was dark and raining, and the sun had only just re-appeared when G42 showed up. Within half an hour the rain had returned, and set in for the remainder of the day.
	37408 accelerates away from a signal check at Barrow-on-Trent with 6D44 Bescot - Toton. The time is 14:03 on Monday 29th November 2004 and 6D44 was running right behind 60061 on the Corby coil, hence the signals. Getting a shot of a 37 on this day should have been straightforward because Bescot had several 37s on hand, and the weather was set fair for the whole day. The plan was to do the Bloxwich trip if it dropped a Tractor, with the 6G36 Birch Coppice trip being a fallback. 37669 was on the front of 6G36 by 08:45 - trying for this at Ryecroft and staying local to cover the Bloxwich was plan A. However Walsall was gridlocked due to problems on the motorway, so I diverted to Water Orton for 6G36 - only to arrive about a minute too late. Bad start. I hung it out for the 6G42 return trip, but it went via Whitacre. Bowled again. Next I headed back to Bloxwich in case the trip had run late, but at 12:00 there was no sign of life, so then it was back to Bescot, and maybe lunch. 37408 was in the Engineers Yard on 6D44, so after waiting to see it depart at 12:40 I headed to Barrow to do this shot. A day when persistence eventually paid off.
	37408 again, this time leaving Pontlottyn with 2R42, the 17:11 Cardiff - Rhymney on Wednesday 8th June 2005. Having done 37425 on the 16:50 at the south end of the village I fancied trying an "in your face" shot of the next train. This isn't quite the spot I originally had in mind (I would have been in someone else's shot) - but it worked out OK I think. Now available as a wallpaper.
	37411 emerges from Park St tunnel, Walsall, with a 5Z15 Bescot - Tyseley special consisting of two Mark 2 carriages. This photo was taken at 10:12 on Tuesday 6th June 2006, two days before the loco was supposed to be withdrawn from service. In the event it was reprieved for a week, before eventually being withdrawn on the 15th.
	37416 hammers through Cosford at 10.48 on Wednesday 9th November 2005. Although visibility extends only about a quarter of a mile to the west I had no trouble at all identifying the approach of this train. The unmistakeable growl of a 37 under power could be heard a good 20 seconds before the loco came into view. The train is 6W55, an 04.35 Barmouth - Bescot special which was running about 3½ hours late at this point.     Thanks to GWOT/RWJ for timing updates on this train.
	37416 climbs past the village of Piccadilly, just around the corner from Kingsbury on the Birch Coppice branch. This photo was taken at 10.24 on Wednesday 16th November 2005. I'd originally tried for 6G36, the Bescot - Birch Coppice trip, on the main line at Water Orton - but to my annoyance it went around the back via Whitacre Jct. The trip usually pauses for a few minutes at Kingsbury to pick up the shunting staff, and this provides an opportunity for a second attempt. However there aren't many usable locations on the branch, particularly in autumn and winter. This brief gap in the lineside foliage is just about the only spot where the line is lit, except at Birch Coppice itself; and that explains why I wasn't the only person there.
	The driver of 37417 applies a brief burst of power as the 6Z79 Northampton - Bescot scrap train approaches its destination. 66089 was trailing on the rear of the SSA wagons. This picture was taken at 16:09 on Saturday 1st July, which meant that I missed the first 20 minutes of the England vs Portugal World Cup quarter-final. Fortunately for me the football didn't start until 20:00 (France vs Brazil), and as the 37 came past in sun this turned out to be one of my better decisions. Special thanks to all those who posted info and timing updates for this train, especially Tony Shaw.
	37419 stands at Ryecroft with the 7M53 Bridgwater - Sellafield flasks on Thursday 25th July 1996. The number of people in attendance indicate that there was a bit of a flap on - one of the wagons was running hot. The men in yellow jackets are the fire brigade, those in orange are railway personnel, and the bloke in the suit (bottom right) is a reporter from the local paper. The train had arrived at Ryecroft at about 17:15, the fire brigade and railway staff turned up at about 18:20, and this picture was taken at 18:45. The reporter was first on the scene (apart from us photographers), and we spent some time talking to him while he waited for the emergency services to arrive. Eventually the train was authorised to move and diverted into Bescot where it arrived at 20:50. The errant wagon was removed and spent a day or two on Bescot TMD being repaired. The story ran in the next evening's paper, although if I recall correctly not as the shock-horror tale that we feared. Much has changed with the operation of these trains in the intervening years. No more brakevans, no more runner wagons, and every train double-headed as a matter of policy.
	On the afternoon of Sunday 15th April 2007 three of the (then) four active EWS 37s were parked within a few yards of each other in Bescot Down Yard. 37406 was positioned on a ballast train for Machynlleth, and 37410+37422 were still parked at the head of a rake of ECS off a railtour which ran on Saturday 14th. Of the other two notionally active locos 37405 was working in Yorkshire and 37417 was out of traffic at Allerton. With 37406 due back at Bescot in the early hours of Monday, and 67011 on the business end of the ECS, it looked like all three of the 37s might be available for local workings on Monday 16th. And so it proved, 37406 worked light engine to Didcot for 7M28 Hinksey - Bescot, 37410 appears to have worked a road learning turn before heading back north to Mossend in 6S73, and 37422 worked the Birch Coppice trip. This shot shows 422 as it departed from Bescot at 09:20 on Monday 16th.
	On Tuesday 1st May 2007 37422 worked the Bescot - Birch Coppice trip. My day started badly, after wrestling with Walsall's rush-hour traffic to make 37422 I was comprehensively bowled by a Sprinter coming the other way. I therefore had to make do with a shot of the return working, seen here passing Whitacre Jct at 11:49. 37406 was also in residence at Bescot and the Birch Coppice trip had become a regular 37 job again in late April and early May of 2007.
	A gallery of 15 or so had assembled at Craven Arms for the 1Z38 Llandrindod Wells - Eastleigh railtour on Saturday 25th August 2007. It ran near enough to time, and this photo of 37422 and 37417 was taken at 17:55.
	Celebrity repaint 37425 heads 2R38 16:50 Cardiff - Rhymney on the approach to Pontlottyn at 17:45 on Wednesday 8th June 2005. I have to say that I don't care much for Arriva's turquoise liveried carriages, and I'm not a great fan of large-logo blue either - although it's much preferable to most of what followed it. But beggars can't be choosers, and as far as the big railway is concerned we're all beggars these days.
	37427 accelerates through Cosford with 7W36, the 12:36 Bescot - Sutton Bridge ballast. This picture was taken at 13:22 on Sunday 6th March 2005. The same train ran most Sundays in early 2005, firstly from Crewe and latterly from Bescot. From Sutton Bridge it proceeded into an engineers possession between Shrewsbury and Welshpool, the worksite usually being near the latter town. The usual formation of the train was Class 37, Shark brakevan, rake of loaded Seacows, Shark brakevan, and another 37 on the back (37669 here). EWS had so few 37s in traffic that the same pair were pretty much bound to appear on this train each week. The only variation was which one would be on the front. It was nice to see this train run on March 6th, as it had been cancelled the previous Sunday. The weather was good too, although a small cloud which appeared at the last second took the edge off the light at Cosford. The brakevans used on this train were DB993727 and DB993795.