Lesser spotted Borders tractors
Possibly the least-photographed and recorded class based at 64B to feature in Waverley route (re)collections.
A dozen strong for the majority of the Waverley's diesel era, the tractor fleet remains elusive, despite Neil Caplan attesting to their late mastery of the route in the Railway World WR Special (Ian Allan 1985).
However, there is probably a solid explanation for this. The Clayton fleet was still retained in quantity until inroads were made during '68, matched to a degree with routing away of traffic from the line. The only footage so far of 37s would point to greater use in the final year, but in any case their massed transfer from South Wales was timed explicitly to eradicate steam in Fife. During '68 some EE Type 3 were either surplus or displaced, and prior to transfer west it may have been that with less dedicated work, Millerhill was able to put spare locos to use on the Waverley.
So in this rare case, my view until persuaded to the contrary, is that Haymarket kept its 37s away from Millerhill rather than having them as common-user freight locos, and they only rarely strayed when traction was acutely short. Pictures do exist of Polmadie units heading north, symptomatic of problems - or opportunism - at Kingmoor perhaps. The facts will only be known if and when signal box records come to light.
D6838/44-51 came from 86A, and 6837/58 from 87E in September '66
D6857/9 joined them from 66A in October '66
D6903 from 86A later, in April '67
D6936 and 6937 right at the death in September and June '68.
Of these, ten: 6844/6/7/50/1/7/8, 6903/36/7 outlived the Waverley at Haymarket
6859 returned whence it came in September '67, along with 6837
6838/45 moved across to Eastfield in September '68 and were joined by 6848/9 the next month
All locos were workstained coal luggers, that retained GSYP livery whilst the line was open, as far as is known. Somewhere there is a photo of one in BFYE working between Lady Victoria Colliery and Hawick, during the line's freight only period. Any pointers of into-blue dates for these ScR 37s would be very welcome indeed.
EDIT Friday July 2 to add 6936 and 6937 info.
One can't help imagine that, had the rationalized line survived, Large Logo Blue 37s would have been its signature Eighties traction, bearing names such as 'Reverend Brydon Mabon,' 'Riccarton Outward Bound,' 'Lord Steele of Etterick & Lauderdale,' 'Paul Riley' etc...
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