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Favourite Class 37


scottishlocos
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  • 4 weeks later...

This is almost to hard to believe but my favourite class 37 is the one I drove down a platform at  Liverpool Street station! I was in my early teens and was even smaller than I am now and I asked the driver in a 37  for a look in the cab. He let me in and I looked around and then he asked if I would like to start the engine. He had everything set up so all I had to do was press a button. He told me to hold the button until a small light went out on the panel. When I pressed the button the engine started with such a roar that I let go of the button and the engine stopped! The driver said that the station people would wonder what he was up to not being able to get it going but he let me do it again and this time it started properly. He made sure all was well and then told me to move one lever into the forward position and release the brake lever. I then had to carefully pull on the power handle and the engine moved slowly off. When we went down the platform he told me to stop before we reached some small hut or building at the end of the platform where some other railwaymen might spot me. I pushed the power lever back and he said to put the brake on which I did but  rather too hard and it really ground to halt very suddenly! All the time he had his foot on the dead man's pedal and could have taken over in a second.

 

The first loco I was allowed to have a cab ride in was a class 40 in North Wales and although it didn't bounce around I was surprised by the sort of  rumbling sound and vibration of wheels on rails. I also remember the second man suddenly shouting, "Look at those two cows sh*gging" after seeing them in a field! 

Edited by drgj
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  • RMweb Gold

Have a Guess?

 

 

37114 for me as well, when scenes like this were common: https://www.flickr.com/photos/killie65/2147361982/

Once that one became a bit rarer on the FNL I always kept an eye out for this one: https://www.flickr.com/photos/24954888@N07/6856317872/

 

37's seemed so much more modern than BRCW Type 2's at the time!

Gets a vote from me too - the name alone would do it of course but we used to do overnights at Stafford until 2/3 am in the early noughties. One night 37114 turned up on a northbound freight - it was a still morning (1 am ish!) and the thrash as she left northbound was pure hellfire - I am sure we could still hear her as she passed Norton Bridge.

 

But then of course there is D6992....

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/80301-d6992-from-Bachmann-37254/

 

There are links to prototype photos within the thread - and I reckon one PJKing wont mind if I donate his vote for her too, see http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/82334-dirty-diesels/

 

Phil

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37326/37111, Glengarnock screaming through Paisley Gilmour St with a Triple header on Ore from Hunterston to Ravenscraig

 

Triple headed  ? - was the third loco invisible on this occasion ;-)) 

 

Seriously though. I recall being on the platform at Milliken Park one day and almost getting blown off, when one of these triple headed Ore services blasted through ! Magic 

Edited by tractor_37260
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Triple headed  ? - was the third loco invisible on this occasion ;-)) 

 

Seriously though. I recall being on the platform at Milliken Park one day and almost getting blown off, when one of these triple headed Ore services blasted through ! Magic 

 

Arrggh   Milliken Park, second most depressing noise of the original on train announcements, the first being, Glengarnock hahahaha.

Would make you think twice about stopping there

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  • 3 weeks later...

Like a few others I think it may be obvious what mine is :)

But besides 081 i have a few others like 011, 012, 027, 043, 108 & 114

 

All Scottish and all split headcode :)

I also have a soft spot for 064 but thats because I got to paint the real one at Tinsley while on a YTS course... it came out rather unique but i'm a bit embarrased by the results now! :blush:

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I also have a soft spot for 064 but thats because I got to paint the real one at Tinsley while on a YTS course... it came out rather unique but i'm a bit embarrased by the results now! :blush:

 

Nice story I guess this was the result.... https://www.flickr.com/photos/47362745@N07/6340675542/

 

 

I got a pic of it in 1986 when it did have its black boxes.

 

post-12740-0-51102200-1422200024.jpg

37064+37063 Craghall 1986

 

Thought it was pretty cool myself.

 

Steve

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Nice story I guess this was the result.... https://www.flickr.com/photos/47362745@N07/6340675542/

 

 

I got a pic of it in 1986 when it did have its black boxes.

 

attachicon.gif37064Craghall.jpg

37064+37063 Craghall 1986

 

Thought it was pretty cool myself.

 

Steve

 

Yep thats the one :) And that's one of my photos in the first link :) I just think i went overboard with the white haha, i'm still pleased with the white window surrounds but not so much the other bits

 

I once painted an old Lima 37 as 064 but i have a Bachmann one on the workbench at the moment half painted to replace it

 

Cool pic of yours at Craghall

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  • 3 weeks later...

Triple headed  ? - was the third loco invisible on this occasion ;-)) 

 

Seriously though. I recall being on the platform at Milliken Park one day and almost getting blown off, when one of these triple headed Ore services blasted through ! Magic 

 

37326 / 37111 is just one loco, it was renumbered to 37326 for a while along with other Ravenscraig/British Steel dedicated Class 37s at Motherwell depot

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Tough call between these two https://flic.kr/p/9BCmUV. In the condition they were in before they went to France. I recall seeing one of them (I think it was 37672) standing in at Devonport Albert Road one hot day in (I think..)1997*. It was gurgling on tickover, and its hunkered down form oozed power. I wish I had taken my camera that day because it was a sight to see; rust patches, dirt and a general rundown air of neglect, but still able to bring a smile to my face. The sound of the 37's coming up the hill from Plymouth North Road was a joy to hear.

 

EDIT: *Having trawled through Flickr and the Class 37 Locomotive Group pages (http://www.c37lg.co.uk/fleet.aspx?strnumber=37672) it may well have been 1999.

 

Cheers

 

Jan

Edited by Jan
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  • 1 month later...
  • RMweb Gold

37264

 

20+ years ago I got a Frizinghall Model Railways respray of this one as I loved the Scottish large logo 37's. Can still remember the postie arriving with it. Back then a respray was something exotic! Still have the model and remains pride of my fleet. 

 

Didn't see the real thing until last October when we visited the NYMR!

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  • 5 months later...
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Have to be 37429, I'll admit I was late on the scene at this bashing lark. My interest in real railways only really rekindled during a holiday near Bangor when the 37/4s were on the North Wales coast. A still summer evening and the cottage we were staying in was on a hillside just to the east of Bangor. To hear them opened up after coming out of the tunnel was almost as good as the steam I'd heard from my bedroom window as a child half a mile away on the GC line north of Nottingham.

Had a ride out with them and I was hooked.

429 never went to Scotland as far as I know until very late in it's life after doing both the last scheduled Holyhead Birmingham and also the last loco hauled Holyhead Crewe 3 weeks later when the 175s were still flaky.

Another good bit of thrash I remember was while out on call as an alarm engineer if I was in the area I would take a break at Grantham. There used to be a freightliner with a pair of 37s on in the late evening. On a still night you became aware of a rumbling sound other than the noise from the A1. Gradually getting louder until the train roared through the station and continued until stopping suddenly as they entered Stoke tunnel.

The 47 hauled liners were tame by comparison:-)

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