DRS to sell 10 of its Class 37s on leaseback arrangement

DIRECT RAIL Services has put its remaining 12 Class 37s up for sale, although 10 will continue to be used by the operator even after they are sold.

The company has offered 37218, 37401/402/407/419/422-425 and 37716 on a sale and leaseback arrangement, where the locomotives will be sold but then hired back by DRS to honour its autumn railhead treatment train duties, but otherwise the operator plans to only use modern locomotives on its services. Maintenance of the locomotives would also pass to the new owner of the fleet as part of the arrangement.

The last Class 37s to be overhauled for DRS were 37425 Sir Robert Mcalpine/concrete Bob and 37419 Carl Haviland 1954-2012 by Loram UK at Derby.

This completed a number of overhauls carried out by Harry Needle Railroad Company, Rail Vehicle Engineering Ltd and, latterly, Loram. Of the Class 37s available for sale and leaseback, 37407 Blackpool Tower is stored at Carlisle Kingmoor, while 37423 Spirit of the Lakes is in store and on static display at Crewe Heritage Centre. Both of these locomotives were removed from traffic in February this year.

The remainder of the 10 sale and leaseback locomotives are currently used on stock moves, driver training duties and infrastructure trains. Colas Rail Freight has recently hired 37419 for use on infrastructure monitoring duties.

Also being offered for sale but not subject to a leaseback arrangement are 37069, 37602 and 57002 Rail Express. 37069 and 37602 are both stored at Eastleigh Works. The Class 37/0 was removed from traffic in February this year, while 37602 was stored in September 2019.

As for 57002, it was still classified as being ‘active’ at the time it was put up for sale, but has been out of traffic since April when it was used on infrastructure duties in East Anglia.

The sale of 57002 will bring the curtain down on Class 57/0s with the Carlisle-based company, which at one time operated nine of the sub-class, with 57002-004/007-012 all used by DRS, with the other eight sold in the three previous tenders issued by the company over the last nine months. Meanwhile, the operator has returned Class 57/3 57305 to service after its lease to Rail Operations Group ended earlier this year.

The locomotive is one of five Class 57/3s that DRS had previously leased to ROG, although when they returned it was widely expected that they would be disposed of by the company. However, 57301/303/305/310/312 are set to be used by the operator on general duties.

Its future fleet will now consist of Class 57/3s, 66s, 68s and 88s. This has been the plan since the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) took over more control of the business in 2020.

DRS is also losing five Class 66/3s from its fleet to GB Railfreight (see separate story).

After the sales for these latest locomotives have been taken into account, its fleet (not including the Class 37s it will be leasing), will be: 57301/303-310/312, 66421-434, 68001-034 and 88001-010.

Of those, 68010-015 are sub-leased to Chiltern Railways with 68008/009 as spare, while 68019-032 are sub-leased to Transpennine Express with 68033/034 as spare.

Phil Chilton Resplendent in its Intercity Mainline colours, DRS 37419 Carl Haviland 1954-2012 passes Wichnor Junction with 3Q17, the 23.21 Crewe CS to Derby RTC test train, which ran overnight via Rugby, Stafford and Tame Bridge, on May 28. At the time the locomotive was on short-term hire to Colas to cover a shortage in its own fleet. 37419 is one of 10 Class 37s offered for sale by DRS on a leaseback basis.

James Garthwaite As reported in the last issue of Railways Illustrated, Hitachi has commenced dynamic testing of the first Class 805 bi-mode trains it is building for Avanti West Coast, where they will be used to replace Class 221 ‘Voyagers’ on the North Wales Coast. Thirteen five-coach bi-mode Class 805 trains and 10 sevencoach electric Class 807 trains are being built by Hitachi for use by the West Coast Main Line operator at a cost of £350 million. The first are expected to enter service with Avanti from 2023. On July 12, 805001 emerges from Hitachi’s plant at Newton Aycliffe. It was brought outside, fuelled, and then taken back inside the test shed.