Class 37 Farewell Tours
North Wales Coast & The Conwy Valley
The weekend of 20/21 May 2000 saw two special trains, organised by First North Western in conjunction with the Railway Magazine, to mark the end of its locomotive hauled passenger trains.
37 608 and 37 612, having hitched a ride south on the overnight
Sellafield to Valley nuclear flask train, wait amongst the weeds on Friday
for their moment of fame. We spent the night in Wrexham after Christine and
I had enjoyed an excellent gig from Bellatrix at Yales.
Despite the gloomy weather forecast we awoke to a cloudless sky and after
a leisurely breakfast strolled down to Wrexham General for the short run to
Chester. Here we met Dave Sallery on the platform then waited on the bridge
for a photograph of our train arriving from Crewe.
The special arrived at Chester with 37 029 leading 37 379 Ipswich WRD Quality Approved and we sprinted down the steps to board then waved goodbye to Christine, who was to spend the day shopping. Many of the North Wales Coast website team were on board and we also met some of the regulars from the uk.railway newsgroup for the first time. We sat in the middle of the train in chocolate and cream Mk 1 TSO number 5030.
We bail out at Llandudno Junction and skip the run along the branch to Llandudno
so we can take photos from the bridge and visit Tesco for food. We'd lost
the sunshine by now as the clouds swept in from the west.
The two 37/0 engines wait while the DRS locos are attached at the end
Super power to Llandudno with 37 379 and 37 029 at the front,
37 608 and 37 612 at the rear