Pictured above, 37025 stands at Wick on 14th August 1984. Photo by Stuart McKay.
History of 37025
37025 entered traffic as D6725 in August of 1961, and as with most early 37's, it started life allocated to the Eastern region painted in green livery with small yellow warning panels and fitted with vacuum brakes and a steam heating boiler. It was in 1981 before D6725, now numbered 37025 under the TOPS numbering system and painted in BR blue livery, came to Scotland - first to Inverness then to Eastfield in 1986 by which time it now sported revised blue with yellow nose ends. After a brief spell at Motherwell in the aggregates pool the loco returned to Eastfield in 1988 joining the Departmental sector. Then, during its final F exam at Doncaster works in 1989, it was one of the first engines in Departmental Grey livery. 1992 saw another livery change, this time into civil engineers "dutch" livery before a return to revised blue two years later. This coincided with the end of a two-year spell at Inverness before moving to Motherwell before it's final association with Scotland ended in 1995. Prior to withdrawal in 1999, its most recent move was to Toton while before this it enjoyed spells at Bescot, Crewe and Eastleigh.
Out with a bang
Our engine ended its days on the mainline by making headline news for all the wrong reasons. Driver John Baker tells the story...
37025 was languishing in the sidings at Warrington Arpley Yard with only twenty six hours of mainline us left on its mainline certificate, it was required at Bescot in Birmingham for movement to EWS's main depot, Toton, but there were no trains for it work to Bescot. Meanwhile in Birmingham at the control office for Virgin trains they had a different problem, plenty of trains to work but no locomotives. One train was the 12.30 Glasgow-Poole which changes from electric to diesel traction at Preston to take the non-electrified route through Manchester (this is worked by the engine from 09:19 Holyhead-Euston as far as Crewe which failed that day, loco was 47702!). EWS were asked if they could provide a class 47 but only had 37025 at nearly Warrington, it was decided to hire 37025 to work the train through to Poole.
Word spread fast and an additional twenty passengers "enthusiasts" were waiting at Preston. The journey to Manchester Piccadilly was uneventful but on applying power on departure the ammeter (which shows the current produced by the generator that goes to the traction motors and turns the wheels) shot up and down irratically several times before settling down; this can indicate too much power to the wheels causing them to slip on the rails, but this was discounted as the power controller was only at 'on' and the rails were dry. On departure from Stockport this happened again more violently accompanied with a yellow warning light indicating a possible problem with the traction motors, power was then lost completely and the train ground to a halt 400 yards after departing Stockport.
On looking around the loco it was noted that number five traction motor was hotter then the rest. The normal procedure is to isolate the defective motor by turning a switch, however on 37025 this is secured by a rusty bolt thus requiring a spanner to undo it before isolating the motor, I didn't have a spanner. There is a small maintenance office in Stockport but no staff was present, I then phoned the station and signalboxes but none of the staff had a spanner. Finally in a desperate attempt to get a spanner I asked the guard to go through the train and ask if any of the students from the local technical college who had boarded the train at Stockport on their way home might have some tools, none did. So the train was now a "failure" and requiring assistance from another loco.
Fortunately or unfortunately as it turned out 47854 had just arrived in Manchester from the Southwest of England and was despatched to assist us to Birmingham. However, it was very low on fuel and this soon became clear as the engine stalled several times before giving up completely at Macclesfield were the train was terminated. I thought nothing more of it until I was summoned by my boss the next day and shown a selection of national newspapers all running the story of a train driver asking for a spanner, including the front page of the Manchester Evening News! So 37025 went out with a big bang and made front-page news, I hope its future is more reliable and it makes the news again for all the right reasons.
I learnt later that some rubber seals in the electrical cubicle had perished causing some traction motor contactors to touch and weld together.
Footnote by Neil Webster - Many thanks to John for letting us reproduce his story. This article was originally written for and published in the SRPS magazine, "Blastpipe". When we acquired 37025 we were aware that John was the driver on that fateful day and we made several attempts to contact him through various sources in the North West of England. However, it was one of the SRPS booking clerks who showed me his letter.
Ironically, while stored at Toton, 37025 ended up parked next to 47702 which was the very same engine which had failed that day and gave 37025 a Class One train as its final working for EWS.
The Life & Times of 37025
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1961 | Built and numbered D6725 at English Electrics' Vulcan Foundry at Newton-le-Willows |
| 08/08/1961 | Allocated to 30A - Stratford |
| April 1966 | Transferred to 31B - March |
| February 1974 | Renumbered 37025 under the TOPS scheme |
| February 1974 | Transferred to TE - Thornaby |
| February 1974 | Transferred to MR - March |
| 31/05/1981 | Transferred to HM - Healey Mills |
| 07/06/1981 | Transferred to ED - Eastfield |
| 07/02/1982 | Transferred to IS - Inverness |
| December 1983 | Repainted into Large Logo livery at Doncaster Works |
| 19/01/1986 | Transferred to ED - Eastfield |
| 04/10/1987 | Transferred to ML - Motherwell |
| 05/06/1988 | Transferred to ED - Eastfield |
| May 1989 | Repainted into Departmental Grey livery at Doncaster Works |
| 22/04/1990 | Transferred to IM - Immingham |
| 05/08/1990 | Transferred to ED - Eastfield |
| 09/02/1992 | Transferred to IS - Inverness |
| ?? 1992 | Repainted into Civil Engineers livery |
| March 1994 | Repainted into Large Logo livery and named "Inverness TMD" |
| 20/03/1994 | Transferred to ML - Motherwell |
| 28/05/1995 | Transferred to BS - Bescot |
| 17/01/1997 | Transferred to CD - Crewe Diesel Depot |
| 26/09/1997 | Transferred to EH - Eastleigh |
| 27/11/1998 | Transferred to TO - Toton |
| 24/02/1999 | Suffers a Traction Motor Flashover while working the 12:30 Glasgow Central - Poole. |
| 26/02/1999 | Withdrawn at Toton TMD |
| 13/12/1999 | Put up for sale on tender by EWS |
| 15/03/2000 | Closing dates for bids to buy 37025 |
| 28/03/2000 | S37G bid verbally accepted by EWS |
| 05/05/2000 | EWS confirm successful bid by writing |
| 15/08/2000 | Leaves Toton |
| 17/08/2000 | Arrives at Bo'ness, restoration work commences | 29/09/2007 | Operates first train in preservation at Bo'ness |
Current Status of 37025
37025 is now at the SRPS site at Bo'ness and availible for traffic.