HNRC acquires DRS ‘37/6s’ for hire contracts

Two Class 37/6s have been added to the Harry Needle Railroad Company fleet, after HNRC acquired 37607 and 37612 from Direct Rail Services.

Both are serviceable, and remained in traffic on the day the company announced their purchase. HNRC Managing Director Harry Needle told RAIL their purchase means that three Class 31s will be made available for sale later this year, along with two ‘20s’ and two ‘08s’.

While the identities of the ‘08s’ and ‘20s’ have yet to be decided, Needle said that 31235/255/285 would be put up for sale. They will be made available only to preservationists, and will be sold on wheelsets capable of running only on heritage lines. Needle said the same terms would apply to other locomotives being put up for sale, adding that, realistically, it would be December before they are made available.

He told RAIL that the ‘37s’ would be used for hire contracts, as was originally the plan for the ‘31s’. Unlike two of the three ‘31s’, the new purchases are serviceable and passed for main line running.

Of the HNRC fleet, 31235 is stored at the Mid-Norfolk Railway, and has not been used on the main line since Transrail withdrew it in 1995, while 31255 (withdrawn by EWS in 1999) is stored at the Colne Valley Railway. Both have been operational in preservation. The third locomotive (31285) was bought from Network Rail and is stored at Burton. It was operational until 2015, when it failed with a wheelset fault.

DRS bought the ‘37s’ from Eurostar in 1999, and while they require exams (the reason for their sale), they are operational. They will be the first ‘37s’ in the HNRC fleet since the company sold locomotives to Colas Rail. It has also owned ‘37s’ that were sold to DRS (many have since been re-sold), including: 37087, 37194, 37503/510/515/521, 37667/670.

In its time, HNRC has owned 37010/029/037/057/068/079, 37100/131/170/178, 37201/214/ 217/220/227/235/242/254/275, 37334, 37414/428, 37672/680/ 696, 37704, 37898, 37902.