cda wagons , use with original railfreight class37s ... ie 37196

[chinaclayfan]

Hello everyone it's been a while since I used the forum , so just a simple question . Has anyone ever seen an original Railfreight liveried 37 pulling CDA wagons . I think I remember seeing a picture of one which may have been 37669 in a John Vaughn book . many thanks for any help

[The Pilotman]

You will find several examples of Class 37s on CDAs if you do a search on Flickr for (for example) Fowey 1988. However, that selection only features locomotives with the red stripe. If you’re looking for an example without the red stripe, then that might be trickier to track down. I suspect that by the time the CDAs had arrived, all of Laira’s Class 37s had had the red stripe added, or were even in the newer Railfreight livery.

Edited August 20, 2023 by The Pilotman

[Halvarras]

Do you mean original without the red stripe? I believe 37696 was the first refurbished 37 seen in Cornwall in mid-1986 (followed by at least 37690 - don't forget, these locos were outshopped in reverse numerical order). However I don't think these were officially allocated to Laira and had departed the area before the CDAs went into full service in February 1988 (I've never seen a photo of one of these on CDAs), by which time the 'home fleet' 37670-5 had been delivered. 37673 was the first 37 into Railfreight Triple-Grey livery (for the freight sector launch at Ripple Lane in October 1987) so arrived at St Blazey already in that livery. The rest were in Railfreight Grey Red Stripe, however shortly after delivery 37670/1 were involved in a serious incident at Tavistock Junction in November 1987 which saw them sent to Doncaster for repair - they were out of action for around a year I think (37669 and 50149 stepped in to fill the void) and of course when they eventually returned they were both in the Triple-Grey livery (671 oddly carrying Metals logos). As a result only 37669/72/74/75 got to work the CDAs in Railfreight Grey Red Stripe. They were of course progressively repainted into the Triple-Grey livery, and by 1992 I think only 37672 was still in the old livery, looking shabby but with shiny new St Blazey depot plaques, unusual on the Grey Red Stripe loco. It didn't last long like this.....

[Halvarras]

PS as you can probably tell from the above St Blazey's unrefurbished Class 37s, including celebrities 37175, 37196 & 37207, were replaced by the refurbished examples around mid-1987, so these never got to work the CDAs as they hadn't yet been delivered.

I have a clear memory of approaching the outskirts of Plymouth on the A38 en route to a holiday near Looe in early September 1987 and just as we crossed the mainline I spotted a named blue Class 47 heading east towing a standard blue 37 and one in large logo blue. Judging by the nameplate size and position the 47 must have been either 47625 City of Truro or 47613 North Star, but I reckon that by pure coincidence I had just caught large logo 37175 being towed away from the South West (since it now belongs to Colas it has since reappeared a number of times on Network Rail test trains, even getting to travel down Cornish branch lines!)

[chinaclayfan]

Thank you very much Pilotman and Halvarras that information makes things a lot clearer , also how dim of me not to realise the 37s would then be red stripes , still thanks very much . Also some wonderful pictures on Flickr .

[The Pilotman]

Around that time there were also some other interesting locomotive/livery types that turned up on rakes of CDAs. Flickr has images of:

 

47490 in debranded InterCity livery:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/16867856@N07/17013787166/

 

50029 in original Network SouthEast:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/actonwellsjunction/15133704841/in/photolist-p4jccx

 

37412 in large logo blue

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mick_page/38528822800/in/photolist-2o8JHdP-2okZ3Qf-s38CQb-226NVxb-2nLdYcK-2kQQh4X-2m6Yid8-QuFDp5-24KDyfL-238CWpj-2om2vFX-2m8XJLJ-noEdAE-2f6Y9V8-21GEhGh-2ovP2W7-PBmAxG-2nBeX3d-26Qd311-2jx5SBm-2oHZoQo-o4YoFW-RQF8S6-SauZ14-23YmYyj-2oResLR-27RcbWJ-gVdPwp-2m3nZJo-JgMPhX-bAND3N-Zt6dUv-NHKVYH-dvUdHh-dvNxqK-ok6Uvs-2jtwHGA-2o63VSk-d4yHsG-gv16sW-xBwuiN-2jZvNd1-fzg6NG-P3F2JB-T2FBCH-PNehTE-2oHZ7b6-aNWZnv-a34FuR

 

and 37420 in Mainline (InterCity) livery. 
https://www.flickr.com/photos/34906043@N07/14634871131/in/photolist-oiexjk

 

Also, I’m fairly sure there’s an image in one of John Vaughan’s books of a plain blue class 47 on CDAs on the Cornish Mainline and I’m 99% sure I’ve seen a picture online of a plain blue 37 at Golant on CDAs but can’t find it at the moment. 

Edited August 21, 2023 by The Pilotman

[chinaclayfan]

Thank you very much Pilotman and Halvarras that information makes things a lot clearer , also how dim of me not to realise the 37s would then be red stripes , still thanks very much . Also some wonderful pictures on Flickr .

[chinaclayfan]

Thanks so much for your recent photos , just goes to show you start off with a simple question and then people are so helpful .

[Halvarras]

8 hours ago, The Pilotman said:

Around that time there were also some other interesting locomotive/livery types that turned up on rakes of CDAs. Flickr has images of

47490 in debranded InterCity livery:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/16867856@N07/17013787166/

 

50029 in original Network SouthEast:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/actonwellsjunction/15133704841/in/photolist-p4jccx

 

37412 in large logo blue

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mick_page/38528822800/in/photolist-2o8JHdP-2okZ3Qf-s38CQb-226NVxb-2nLdYcK-2kQQh4X-2m6Yid8-QuFDp5-24KDyfL-238CWpj-2om2vFX-2m8XJLJ-noEdAE-2f6Y9V8-21GEhGh-2ovP2W7-PBmAxG-2nBeX3d-26Qd311-2jx5SBm-2oHZoQo-o4YoFW-RQF8S6-SauZ14-23YmYyj-2oResLR-27RcbWJ-gVdPwp-2m3nZJo-JgMPhX-bAND3N-Zt6dUv-NHKVYH-dvUdHh-dvNxqK-ok6Uvs-2jtwHGA-2o63VSk-d4yHsG-gv16sW-xBwuiN-2jZvNd1-fzg6NG-P3F2JB-T2FBCH-PNehTE-2oHZ7b6-aNWZnv-a34FuR

 

and 37420 in Mainline (InterCity) livery. 
https://www.flickr.com/photos/34906043@N07/14634871131/in/photolist-oiexjk

 

Also, I’m fairly sure there’s an image in one of John Vaughan’s books of a plain blue class 47 on CDAs on the Cornish Mainline and I’m 99% sure I’ve seen a picture online of a plain blue 37 at Golant on CDAs but can’t find it at the moment. 

 

37412 arrived at St Blazey in August 1989 still with its 'Loch Lomond' plates attached (photo on shed in the relevant section of the Cornwall Railway Society's website) - I have Bachmann 37207, 37671 and 37696 (renumbered from 37693, eBay body on an older chassis but I still got the lights to work!) and that was supposed to be all but when I found a Bachmann 37408 on sale on a local market stall, in need of a little TLC for just £40 recently 37412 was inevitable as I like Large Logo Blue!

 

That photo of a blue Class 47 on CDAs is in John Vaughan's landscape colour album 'Cornish Railways' and was 47476 on 20th October 1988. I've also seen a photo of very clean Railfreight Red Stripe 4733x (can't find it at the moment to check which one) on the CDAs at Golant and the caption days it hung about on these workings for several days - perhaps a lot of 37s were out of action at the time. It's true of course that any air-braked loco could work CDAs......