37106 (ex-D6806) Civil Engineer’s ‘Dutch’

Over 70 Class 37s gained the Civil Engineer’s ‘Dutch’ livery with split headcode examples being just slightly over represented considering they only made up just over a third of the fleet. It is thus unsurprising that the calls for another ‘Dutch’ machine have become increasingly deafening. With centre headcode 37258 being a very popular member of our second run, the fourth batch introduces splitbox 37106, which swapped its Railfreight Metals identity in April 1993 for the colourful grey and yellow courtesy of Glasgow Works.

                  This had originally been built by English Electric at Newton-le-Willows as D6806 in January 1963, part of the D6796-D6818 batch that were the first of the type with the ‘flush’ or ‘welded’ roof that was adopted for the rest of the production. Another 41A Darnell machine that also called iconic sheds such as Gateshead, Healey Mills, Immingham and Tinsley home, it managed to avoid the exodus of the class to Scotland in the early 1980s but eventually received its moving papers at the end of 1990 and returned again in December 1992. Despite its Inverness allocation it was fitted with Eastfield depot plaques on its Dutch repaint, the move to the Glasgow depot not coming until later that year. For its shorter second stint north of the border it was designated to Regional Railways infrastructure and passenger use, and was a notable regular on Edinburgh-Inverness diagrams as well as Inverness-Aberdeen and Edinburgh-Perth trains among other workings.

                  In October 1993 it was on the move again, debuting at Stratford, which quickly replaced the depot plaque with a colourful cockney sparrow variants and added a sticker version for good luck as well. Principally employed on engineer’s duties it negotiated the brief Mainline Freight without incident, although the plaques and arrows quickly disappeared after the EWS takeover in 1996. It transferred to Eastleigh the following year and then Toton in 1998 before finally being stopped in March 1999, another victim of the Class 66 influx. After component recovery it was cut up at Wigan CRDC in August 2000.