D6890
- 37190 - 37314
The
locomotive was built by E.E. at Robert Stephenson & Hawthorns Works,
Darlington, and entered service in January 1964 numbered D6890. Her first depot
allocation was Landore, Swansea where she stayed until November 1969 when she
was reallocated to Neath. May 1973 saw the loco return to Landore depot and in
February 1974 she was renumbered 37190. On 1st March 1974 she hauled a LNER
Society railtour from Barry but unfortunately failed at Port Talbot and was
replaced by 37180 which worked the tour forward to Shrewsbury. The 18th June
1977 saw the loco on railtour duties again, when she hauled a Leeds - Llanwrtyd
charter forward from Shrewsbury. The same month also saw the loco work a
Llandovery - Chester school special throughout. On the 27th January 1979, the
loco hauled the " Welshwizard" railtour from London Paddington to
Swansea with 37183. Two months later on 31st March 37190 hauled the RPPR "
Western Great Western " railtour from Paddington to Kidderminster.
On 1st November 1981, the loco was transferred North to Eastfield depot
Glasgow. July 1986 saw the loco on the move again when she was transferred to
Motherwell depot and renumbered 37314 as part of the Motherwell dedicated
Iron-ore fleet, comprising of locos 37310 to 37326. In conjunction with this,
the locomotive was named ' DALZELL' after one of the Scottish steel works, the
nameplates being fitted to the loco at Motherwell depot without ceremony on
25th July 1986. In
October 1988 the loco entered Doncaster Works for what was to be her very last
Classified overhaul, and was repainted into the new Railfreight Triple-Grey
Livery with Metals decals and renumbered back to 37190.
1st January 1989 saw the loco allocated to the FMGM - Freight Metals
Motherwell Pool. On the 13th January 1991, 37190 moved South when she was
transferred to Thornaby depot and allocated to FMTY - Railfreight (steel)
Thornaby locos. She remained at Thornaby until 5th April 1992, when she was
re-allocated to Cardiff Canton depot and placed in the FMAK pool - Trainload
Metals - Cardiff Canton Class 37 locos. On the 31st May 1992 the loco was
transferred to the FMXX pool, Trainload Metals - stored locos and by June the
loco was stored unserviceable following power unit problems. The 5th July saw
37190 allocated to the RAJW pool - Regional Railways - Scot Rail Eastfield
(weekend only loco) however by 12th July plans had changed and the loco was now
moved into the RFJX pool, Regional Railways - Headquarters - stored locos. The
loco was finally withdrawn from traffic on 16th July 1992 at Cardiff Canton and
her nameplates removed. During the following month, Regional Railways again
looked at the possibility of overhauling the loco but the costs were considered
to high so she was moved to Gateshead depot for safe storage along with sister
loco 37215.
During the early part of 1994 the loco was offered up for sale along
with sister loco 37215. Several members from our group had expressed an
interest in tendering for the loco so we arranged a visit to Gateshead to
inspect the loco, which was found to be in a reasonable condition and well
worth trying to save. A tender was submitted to BR at Derby and within a few
days we received confirmation that our bid was successful and the loco was
ours. We then contacted the Midland Railway Centre for permission to bring
37190 there to join big sister 40012 " Aureol".
Since the loco arrived at the M.R.C. thousands of man hours have been spent
on restoring her back to full running order, work carried out includes
re-plating the body sides, completely repainting the engine room, cabs and nose
ends, replacing various missing components and repairing the faulty main
generator.
On Sunday 15th July 2001, 37190 finally rolled out of the shed at
Swanwick in true Scottish Large-Logo livery complete with Scottie dog emblems
and mini snow ploughs. The restoration of this loco was a credit to all those
who have worked so hard on her over the past few years. 37190 will now run for
a short period of time without nameplates, before being reunited with her
Dalzell name once again.
Being the only member of the class in the striking Large-Logo livery,
word soon got round the preservation movement that the loco was available for
diesel galas. One of the first preserved lines to request the loco was the
Mid-Hants Railway in April 2002, followed by a visit to the Keighley &
Worth Valley Railway in August if that year.
2003 saw the loco spend the entire year on home ground at the Midland
Railway Centre, working at various steam and diesel weekends together with the
lines Spring and Autumn diesel galas. During April 2004 we had managed to
secure a replacement traction motor, so the loco was taken out of service while
everything was disconnected and towed up to The Princess Royal Shed for the
work to be done. With the use of the lifting jack's, the loco was lifted up and
the bogie removed which housed the defective traction motor. The motor was then
disconnected and removed and the replacement bogie lifted into position and
reconnected back up. Now for the first time in preservation the loco was
running on all six traction motors and would now appear at the Severn Valley
Railway Autumn diesel gala in October which would give the loco a golden
opportunity to stretch its legs so to speak.
It’s not every day preserved locos go on their holidays but 37190 did in
May 2005 when we received an invitation to attend the West Somerset Railway
diesel gala. With the non-appearance of a Deltic locomotive at the Mid-Hants
diesel gala the following weekend, the railway requested 37190 as a stand by
loco at the eleventh hour. We were more than happy to help out especially as
the was another class 37 visiting the line for the event in the shape of 37401,
which again gave us the opportunity to pair the two locos up.
On 25th June 2005, Mr.David Brown from Traction Magazine rededicated the
loco "Dalzell" at Swanwick Station. With the loco now carrying its
new name the opportunity was taken to renumber the loco back to 37314 as
carried during its Motherwell days.
2006 started off slowly for us but soon picked up speed after we had
received official confirmation from the South Devon Railway requesting the loco
for their forthcoming diesel event and to make things even more interesting,
they repainted 37037 into Large-Logo livery to match our loco and renumbered
her 37321.
Back at the Midland Railway-Butterley, we held our own diesel event on
24th & 25th June 2006 when all the service throughout the weekend were
diesel hauled by our three locos. The loco also shared other working with in
house locos during the year and even during the winter time there was still
plenty going on as we found out when the EMRPS hired 37314 and D212 on several
occasions for some night photographic charters.
On April 7th 2008, the loco moved by road to the Great Central Railway
at Loughborough in time to take part in their Spring Diesel Gala which was a
three day event from 11 – 13 April.
Since the 37 arrived at the railway, she has taken part in a number of
Diesel Galas and Steam / Diesel Weekends and has been requested by the EMRPS
for a couple of night photo charters.
The loco was also used for
testing some new wagons on May 18th 2009 working top and tail with
D123 and took part in a Drivers Experience Day on July 24th 2009.
37314 final working on the Great Central was over the weekend of 11-12
September 2010 when she took part in the railways Autumn Diesel Gala. Shortly
after this, the loco was loaded onto one of Allely’s Heavy Haulage trailer for
the journey back down the M1 Motorway to the MR-Butterley.
The following week saw 37314 out at the MR-Butterley when she took part
in the railways diesel / steam running day.
Unfortunately, due to the harsh winter of 2011 the loco suffered server
frost damage to the heat exchanger which has left the loco out of traffic for
several years pending repairs.
On Sunday September 22nd 2013, after being out of traffic for
three years, 37190 pulled its first train at the MR-Butterley Diesel Gala.
The loco has now moved to Boden Rail Engineering Ltd at Washwood Heath
Met, Cammel Works for bodywork attention and a full re-paint and should be back
in traffic at the MR-Butterley towards the middle of next year (2014).
INFORMATION WANTED
If anyone can supply us with any information on the
life and times of the above loco in its BR days, then we would be very
pleased to here from you.
Our Address is Class 40 Appeal. 65 Darby Road,
Wednesbury, West Midlands, WS10 OPN.
.JPG)
37314 at Totnes with DMU on the 15:11 Buckfastleigh-Totnes service
10:06:06 Photo by Derek Clarke
