37800 Oldfield Park 19th August 1994
37800 waits to leave the Avon County Council refuse siding at Bath Morelands Road with 6B05, 17:47 Bath Westmoorlands to Westerleigh RTS service on 19th August 1994. The siding has now been disconnected from Bath Goods loop, the service having finish in the early 2000's. At the time I worked as a travelling shunter and this was one of my regular jobs. We picked the train up at Bath Spa and spent all afternoon and evening riding around the area dropping and collecting the various portions of the train at the 3 Avon waste terminals. The day ended at Stoke Gifford late evening after forming the 17 wagons of loaded household waste into one train and sending to Calvert. happy days.
37800 was a Stewarts lane loco at the time and a regular on the train and has quite a history. Built at the English Electric Vulcan Foundry at Newton Le Willows it entered traffic on 29th May 1963. Sent to Cardiff Canton from new where it remained until transfer to various Scottish depots in 1966. May 1974 saw it renumber to 37143 and transferred back to South Wales where coal trains were its main workload. One such trip to Marine Colliery on 29th January 1975 saw it run through catchpoints, demolish a stop block and down an embankment into the River Ebbw. It remained there until August 1975 when it was dragged back up and sent off to Doncaster for repair. Late 1977 it was off for a spell at Tinsley until 1984 when it went to Statford. It's next big event was a trip to Crewe Works in March 1986 for a heavy general overhaul. Once released it was numbered 37800 and soon named "Glo Cymru" at Aberthaw as once again it was part of the South Wales fleet. Privatisation saw it move around the country in various pools until August 1999 when it was one of a number of Class 37's to it be selected to sent to France for a year to assist in the building of the high speed line (LGV Est) from Paris towards Strasbourg. After a year stored back in the UK it headed to Spain for a similar project renumbered to L33. It stayed in Spain for a number of years before return to be stored at Toton. Fast forward to 2022 and it's still in use on the UK network as 37800 working for Rail Operations Group normally dragging withdrawn stock around the network in its Europhoenix livery and named "Cassiopeia" Next year it will see it's 60th year in service, quite amazing really.
35mm Slide Scan
© Neil Higson
37800 Oldfield Park 19th August 1994
37800 waits to leave the Avon County Council refuse siding at Bath Morelands Road with 6B05, 17:47 Bath Westmoorlands to Westerleigh RTS service on 19th August 1994. The siding has now been disconnected from Bath Goods loop, the service having finish in the early 2000's. At the time I worked as a travelling shunter and this was one of my regular jobs. We picked the train up at Bath Spa and spent all afternoon and evening riding around the area dropping and collecting the various portions of the train at the 3 Avon waste terminals. The day ended at Stoke Gifford late evening after forming the 17 wagons of loaded household waste into one train and sending to Calvert. happy days.
37800 was a Stewarts lane loco at the time and a regular on the train and has quite a history. Built at the English Electric Vulcan Foundry at Newton Le Willows it entered traffic on 29th May 1963. Sent to Cardiff Canton from new where it remained until transfer to various Scottish depots in 1966. May 1974 saw it renumber to 37143 and transferred back to South Wales where coal trains were its main workload. One such trip to Marine Colliery on 29th January 1975 saw it run through catchpoints, demolish a stop block and down an embankment into the River Ebbw. It remained there until August 1975 when it was dragged back up and sent off to Doncaster for repair. Late 1977 it was off for a spell at Tinsley until 1984 when it went to Statford. It's next big event was a trip to Crewe Works in March 1986 for a heavy general overhaul. Once released it was numbered 37800 and soon named "Glo Cymru" at Aberthaw as once again it was part of the South Wales fleet. Privatisation saw it move around the country in various pools until August 1999 when it was one of a number of Class 37's to it be selected to sent to France for a year to assist in the building of the high speed line (LGV Est) from Paris towards Strasbourg. After a year stored back in the UK it headed to Spain for a similar project renumbered to L33. It stayed in Spain for a number of years before return to be stored at Toton. Fast forward to 2022 and it's still in use on the UK network as 37800 working for Rail Operations Group normally dragging withdrawn stock around the network in its Europhoenix livery and named "Cassiopeia" Next year it will see it's 60th year in service, quite amazing really.
35mm Slide Scan
© Neil Higson