Video: 50 years of the classic diesel loco

The National Railway Museum is throwing a birthday party and steam isn't invited. John Woodcock reports.

How to express a passion for trains? The National Railway Museum, in York, thought it had collected, recorded, promoted or knew of every version, until down the electronic line came an enthusiast's special. It was the picture of a tattoo – a tattoo which, typical of many, is a declaration of love.

The image is of a locomotive, and maybe it would have been less of a surprise if it celebrated Mallard, Rocket or Flying Scotsman. What Paul Cheesemore has running up his hairy left calf is the front end of an English Electric Type 3 Class 37 diesel electric workhorse, one of the mainly unsung heroes of Britain's rail network.

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In its way, the illustration is a work of art. Such is the technical detail it could be a drawing office blueprint rather than Cheesemore's tribute – the most bizarre among many individual acknowledgments – to a history-maker that's the centre of attention at the museum this weekend.

It's half a century since D6700 left the production line, the first 309 of its type which, between them, helped to hasten the end of the steam era.

Their arrival was not just a watershed in the industry. For the generation growing up at the time, diesels, like the TV programmes of childhood, are the motive power which stir nostalgia. They might lack the glamour and romance associated with a fireman's coal shovel producing the smoky, sooty, steamy clouds of rail travel, but the sight of a Class 37 going about its varied business from 1960 to the present day, tugs at many a heart.

To mark the loco's 50th anniversary, the NRM asked people to share their appreciation and memories of diesels and, in particular, an engine whose distinctive sound has earned it nicknames such as "growler" and "the tractor".

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In the case of Mr Cheesemore, from Hertfordshire, it takes trainspotting to a new and intimate level. "Go on, show us those buffers and head code indicators on the back of yer leg."

Together with a photograph, he emailed the briefest of notes. "I'm 43 and being a diesel fan, I have a Class 37 tattoo..."

Others are more forthcoming about their enthusiasm. Phil Munt used to live close to Huddersfield station. He wrote: "We could not go to sleep until the Class 37 came in about 11.45 every night. I think it was a track-cleaning train. As it prepared to leave, it would rev-up. I remember my bed moving across the floor with the vibration. Fantastic sound, awesome power!"

Malcolm Conway recalled the reaction of veteran railwaymen who were disciples of Sir Nigel Gresley, the designer of speed record-breaker Mallard, when new diesels arrived at Doncaster Works for trial runs on the main line.

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"A good number of the diesels broke down and, later in the day, were towed in by an old steam loco, much to the delight of Gresley's men."

Howard Bolton, from Mirfield, was an early devotee of railway modernisation.

"Many believe that the diesel locomotive will never stir the emotions like steam. I disagree. I developed a passion for diesels as a 15-year-old in 1963. I remember fondly a particular diesel shunter on the Middleton Railway in Leeds.

"I champion diesel locos to this day, which doesn't resonate well with family and friends who see nothing to rejoice if it's not steam".

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Anthony Coulls, senior curator of rail vehicle collections at the NRM, understands these sentiments. He might celebrate the distant past in his job, but at 36 he's known only diesel and electric trains in day-to-day rail travel. For him, D6700, in the Brunswick green livery of British Rail, has a worthy place in the national collection because of the revolution it represents and the generations it's spanned.

Its trans-Atlantic "Santa Fe bonnet" design is an offspring of the hugely-powerful Deltic, which English Electric had hoped to sell to American railroads. No such aspirations for the Class 37.

"The locomotive has been a dogsbody all over Britain," says Coulls. "It's hauled passengers, coal, steel, timber, iron-ore, limestone, you name it. It was noisy but reliable and 50 years on, it's still working. About 40 remain in service with freight and charter train operators, Network Rail and on heritage railways, which is remarkable considering the technological advances that have overtaken it. You wouldn't expect your washing machine or family car to be still going strong after half a century.

"The museum is not just about the oldest, fastest and most powerful. D6700 is equally heroic for the contribution it's made to the railway. It was a trailblazer for the post-steam era when oil was cheap. People talk about the romance of steam and tend to forget that for those involved, it was dirty and gruelling. For every individual who mourned the scrapping of 16,000 steam engines in a decade, there were 10 who jumped for joy when diesels, with their instant power, replaced them."

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Catherine Farrell, of the museum's marketing department, realises now that she got it wrong when she used to think, "Poor old diesels, who loves them?"

Thousands do, and that's probably good news for anorak-makers. There are appreciation societies for the Class 37 alone, and a website documents, in scrupulous detail, D6700's history and the hundreds of thousands of miles it covered.

Others are sent into raptures by Sulzer Type 4s, the diesel-hydraulic "Warship Class", the evolving design of diesel units, and the 125 High Speed Train, still pounding along the East Coast route and elsewhere. And a diesel definitely knows its time has come when it demands the services of a tattooist.

The Class 37 Diesel Anniversary Weekend, National Railway Museum, York, today and tomorrow. Information: www.nrm.org.uk

Locomotive built for the long haul

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In the late 1950s, the approaching diesel age required a new locomotive equally at home hauling heavy goods trains and passenger services. English Electric had produced winners for export to East Africa and came up with a general purpose machine, the Class 37.

More than 300 were built in the late Fifties and early Sixties, split between English Electric's Vulcan Foundry at Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside, and Robert Stephenson and Hawthorn's, at Darlington.

The first Class 37 locomotive, D6700, was rolled out of Vulcan Foundry in December 1960 to begin a working life which was to span nearly 40 years. The newly built "BR green" D6700 entered service in British Rail's Eastern region and was soon seen on the tracks of East Anglia, often on express passenger trains. By the late 1960s, it had also spent time in the North East, in South Wales and Scotland.

Steam ended on Britain's mainline in 1968 and in the 1970s, diesel-electric reigned supreme. In 1974, D6700 was given a new look with the standard British Rail corporate blue colour. It was also given a new number, 37 119 and remained mainly in the North and North-East.

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The D6700 and the other Class 37 diesels became a mainstay of the British Rail fleet and privatisation did not bring their ownership of the tracks to an end. Their life was prolonged by an extensive refurbishment.

In the late 1980s, D6700 was moved to South Wales where it worked on secondary passenger trains and fast goods trains and was eventually renumbered again to 37 350. The loco also hauled a number of services in the West Country.

At the beginning of the new millennium, Class 37s were still in regular use on the mainline despite many of them being nearly half a century old.

In the past decade, D6700 has been in demand as a guest engine by heritage railways including the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.

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For the past year, D6700 has been undergoing bodywork and other repairs and is the star attraction at its "birthday party" this weekend.

The D6700 may not have the immediate pull of its steam predecessors, but if the streamlined locomotive legend Duchess of Hamilton is comparable to a thoroughbred, the D6700 is the equivalent of a patient and hard-working dray horse.

YP MAG 16/10/10

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