Our group, 'The Scottish Thirty-seven Group', came into existence in 1997 formed by a handful of Scottish Railway Preservationists to buy and operate a Class 37 locomotive in Scotland.
Since the demise of the Type 2 Sulzers (Classes 24, 25, 26 & 27), the Class 37 locomotive has been synonymous with Rail operations in a large part of Scotland. Apart from being the Standard passenger traction on the West Highland, Far North and Kyle lines, these locomotives were hauling most of Scotland internal freight for many years. This ranged from the famous Ravenscraig ore trains to timber, oil, paper and aluminium. In later years as more and more passenger services in Scotland started to succumb to sprinterisation, it would only be a matter of time before the 37's were ousted from their regular passenger diagrams in Scotland. Since the loss of their passenger diagrams, the 37's were still to see regular work in Scotland on freight and engineering trains. With the exception of Railtours, only one passenger service is rostered for Class 37 haulage - this being the Fort William sleeper service.
Following privatisation of the British Railway network in the 1990's, all of the 37's, including the ETH fitted 37/4's, came under control of EWS following their acquisition of the majority of freight operations in the UK. With EWS subsequently placing a large order for 250 General Motors-built Class 66 freight locomotives in early 1998, the writing was going to be on the wall for the 37's as well as some other classes which would innevitably be supplanted by the new Class 66's. At the time of writing, only about 195 of the 250 66's have been delivered but we are now seeing the impact that these locomotives are having, particularly on the 37's, with many locomotives simply being withdrawn due to relatively minor defects.
As a result of many Class 37's being withdrawn we have decided that we must begin to take the steps necessary to preserve a class of loco that was a way of life for Scotland Railways. So far the group has recently targeted a couple of split headcode boilered examples, 37025/088, which are out of use at Toton and Motherwell respectively. Both these engines have strong passenger and freight connections in Scotland. We are in the process of negociating with the SRPS at Bo'ness with the view of keeping our 37 there.
In October 1999, 37088 was offered for sale but due to heavy stripping undertaken at Motherwell and subsequent movement to Wigan CRDC for component recovery, the decision was taken not to submit a bid. However, on the 12th December 1999, news reached us that 37025 had been put up for sale. A decision was taken to bid for 37025. On the 28th March 2000 the sale was confirmed verbally and was confirmed in writing on the 3rd May 2000.
37025 was officially sold to the Scottish Thirty Group on the 05/05/2000 although unofficial rumours were in circulation before that date. Before submitting our bid, we had undertaken a thorough inspection of this engine and although it's bodywork is in a bad way and needs a lot of electrical work, it is in pretty reasonable condition despite some component recovery having been undertaken since being dumped at Toton TMD.
Final movement took place on 15th of August when 37025 left Toton on a low loader. Arrival at Bo'ness was two days later. Many Thanks are due to the helpfulness of the Toton Staff in particular Roy Padgett, The Team Leaders, Neil McDonald (No Relation!!!!) and finally the Gate Security team who recognised various STG members by the time 37025 left Toton.
37025 arrived at Bo'ness on 16th August 2000. It made its first public appearance as a static exhibit at the 2000 Diesel Gala at Bo'ness. Restoration work has already started, work concentrating on the electrical systems and the engine. However it has been discovered that two Cylinder liners seals were leaking so the decision was taken to renew all liners seal this was later upgraded to an engine overhaul. This will all take time so 37025 should not work until later this year (2004) at the earliest.
Since arrival much restoration work on 37025 has taken place, mainly on concentrating on examing and testing of various parts of the locomotive while recent work on 37025 has been concentrated on the engine overhaul. Also examination work of the loco electrical system continues to be ongoing. Anyone who wishes to help with the restoration and other activities associated with the restoration of 37025, please get in touch.
We are also now a limited company, this is a requirement of the SRPS if the locomotive is to be based at Bo'ness.