rolling stock : class 37 |
Overall Fleet History | |
As part of
the 1955 BR Modernisation Plan, Class 37 locomotives were ordered by BR
and built at the Vulcan Foundry, Newton-Le-Willows and Robert Stephenson &
Hawthorn, Darlington. All locomotives had steam heating, four character
headcode boxes, nose end communication doors and vacuum brakes. These
locomotives were delivered in BR Green livery without yellow warning
panels, but half-yellow panels appeared later due to safety regulations.
The last locomotive to be built became 37308 in the TOPS numbering scheme,
but was later renumbered to avoid confusion with the refurbished Class
37/3 locos. The first batch of locomotives were sent to East Anglia. Between 1968 and 1976 about two thirds of the fleet were modified with the addition of air brakes. Until the programme of dual braking was complete, BR had to be careful about which locomotives to operate on air brake only trains. In 1985, a major refurbishment programme for the Class 37 locomotives started, and 135 locos were modified, leaving 173 unrefurbished locos. Features of the refurbishment was the sealing off of the nose end communication doors and plating over of the four character headcode boxes. |
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Class 37/0 (37003-37308) | |
built : 1960-1965 / weight : 102-108t / max speed : 80mph
/ air and vacuum / multiple with class 31/33/37 fleets |
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Class 37/3 (37331-37384) | |
built
: 1960-1965 / weight : 106t / max speed : 80mph / air
and vacuum / multiple with 31/33/37 fleets |
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History Alternatives to a complete major refurbishment for the Class 37/0 fleet were considered as the refurbishment of the whole fleet was considered too expensive. Conseqently a small batch of locos were given a standard intermediate overhaul, and were fitted with CP7 bogies recovered from withdrawn Deltics. These locomotives were reclassified in the 373xx series. These locos were used in a |