DRS to sell and lease back Class 37s

Arrangement will allow use of the locomotives to continue on Rail Head Treatment Trains.

THE fourth and final sale of heritage assets by Direct Rail Services includes a pool of 10 Class 37s from which the company will be able to lease back locomotives on a shortterm basis.

Those offered under the ‘buy and lease back’ are No. 37218,

Nos. 37401/402/407/419/422/ 423/424/425 and No. 37716.

The exact terms will form part of the tender agreement with the new owner, but DRS has told The RM that the ‘wet lease’ will give it the ability to hire the machines when they are needed for Rail Head Treatment Trains. Autumn is traditionally a busy time for DRS, which operates a number of RHTT diagrams for Network Rail, and it has continued to deploy Class 37s to top-and-tail workings in Yorkshire and East Anglia.

‘37s’ have lower axle loadings (and therefore better route availability) than more modern locomotives, and this is one of the reasons they still have a useful role to play despite being almost 60 years old.

The DRS sell-off, which began last October, was regarded as an important step towards achieving a more modern fleet with lower carbon emissions.

In total, the three previous phases consisted of the sale of the eight remaining Class 20s, nine Class 37s, 10 Class 57s, four Mk.2 coaches, five Mk.2 Driving

Brake Standard Open (DBSO) vehicles and two Mk.3 Driving Van Trailers.

In addition to the 10 locomotives designated for lease back in this final round, two other Class 37s (Nos. 37069 and 37602) and one Class 57

(No. 57002) are listed for sale.

The closing date for the return of bids was July 29.