I think this is possibly one of my finest railway pictures. The ideal combination of stunning early morning lighting with dark clouds in the background, an identifiable location, classic traction and an interesting train make this hard to beat. With Didcot Power Station in the background, 37010 approaches Culham with the 6Z23 Thameshaven to Littlemore oil train on 15 May 1997. This was the first oil train to run to Littlemore for many years, but sadly this resurgence in traffic didn't last long. In the still morning air the train could be heard coming all the way from Didcot, three miles away, giving me several minutes warning of its approach. Unfortunately the 6x7 slide of this picture seems to have gone missing after being published, so this is from a 35mm Fujichrome Sensia slide.

37019 passes Winwick on 28 July 1992 with the 6K85 11:00 Carlisle to Crewe Basford Hall MoD stores train. This traffic would formerly have traveling via the Speedlink network, but after the wagonload network was abandoned in 1991 a small dedicated MoD service was established, based largely on the old Speedlink workings. As can be seen here, the trunk workings could be very well loaded. Presumably the four vintage VEA vans near the front of the train are carrying explosives, hence the barrier wagons either side.

37025 Inverness TMD finds a little patch of weak sunshine amidst the dark clouds as it rolls past Rhyl with the 6F11 11:03 Penmaenmawr to Warrington Arpley ballast on 26 August 1996. This loco is wearing a kind of intermediate livery, based on the large logo colour scheme, although clearly it has no BR logos at all. Otherwise the extended yellow around the cabs with black window surrounds and larger numbers is the same format as the large logo livery. 37025 was withdrawn in 1999, but has since found a home at the Bo'ness & Kinneil Railway.

D6732 (37032) Mirage passes High Kelling on the North Norfolk Railway with the 15:00 Sheringham to Holt service on 2 May 1998. 37032 was withdrawn from Tinsley depot in March 1994, although it had been in store unserviceable for over a year. Tinsley had unofficially named it Mirage in 1992, so this was perpetuated in preservation with cast plates in place of the previously painted ones. A cab full of volunteers enjoying some English Electric traction here!

37038 & 37197 pass Pontrilas with the 1Z48 08:50 Manchester Piccadilly to Cardiff Central football special on 2 March 2003. This was for the Worthington Cup Final played between Liverpool and Manchester United at the Millennium Stadium, which incidentally, Liverpool won 2-0. Pontrilas station closed in 1964, but the signal box and loop remains, along with a fine collection of semaphore signals. Considering the amount of cloud all around, I was lucky to get this one in the sun!

37038 passes Hinksey Yard (near Oxford) towing 87022 Cock o' the North as the 0Z87 11:46 Oxley to Wembley on 2 January 2008. The 87 is being returned to its home depot after the withdrawal of the remaining class members at the end of 2007, therefore making this one of its last mainline outings in this country. Luckily this working was running 23 minutes early. The shadows from the line of parked wagons in the yard on the left has already reached the wheels and if it had been running to time I would have had to have searched for an alternative location!

With a wave from the driver, 37040 weaves across from the down relief to the down main at Foxhall Junction, Didcot on 20 May 1992 whilst working the 6V99 13:53 Hamworthy to Cardiff Tidal steel train, Such is the unpredictability of freight, it is running one hour late and on the wrong day! There was a sudden burst of Class 37 activity here on this day, as 37213 was waiting for 37040 to complete its manouever before it could continue heading east.

37042 arrives at Bargoed station on 26 June 1999 with the 2F13 08:15 Rhymney to Cardiff Central Cardiff Railway Company service. At the time this was normally a unit operated service, but loco haulage was substituted in connection with the inaugural rugby match at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff (Wales v South Africa, appropriately won by Wales).

37043 passes a long since disused permanent way hut and the remains of a former footbridge as it passes Achallader on the West Highland Line with the 6Y45 06:36 Mossend to Fort William Enterprise service on 28 April 1998. For once it was a pleasant wait in the sunshine at this remote spot as the infamous Scottish midges that become unbearable later in the summer had yet to make an appearance. Also at this time of year the landscape shows a varied mixture of colours from green through brown almost to purple.

37045 & 37235 pass Goring with the 4M99 17:14 Southampton to Trafford Park freightliner on 27 May 1992. During 1992 there were several freightliners in the Didcot area booked for Class 37 haulage, both from the south as here, and via the Swindon line from Wales. Luckily this train was booked to run along the relief line, which offers much better photographic opportunities in the low evening light.

37047 & 37109 approach Cam & Dursley with the Pathfinder Tours 1Z37 06:28 Crewe to Whatley  'Industrial Invader' railtour on 18 September 2004. The tour was heading for Sharpness - the first of a number of freight only branches traversed during the day. Photographed in terrible light, at least at this point the tour was running exactly to time - a situation that was not to last!

Mass vegetation clearance at Kemble (on the Gloucester to Swindon line), has resulted in this previously impossible view from above the tunnel being opened up. Despite this new location, I was the only person there to witness 37047 & 37109 accelerate out of Kemble station with the Pathfinder Tours 1Z37 06:28 Crewe to Whatley 'Industrial Invader' railtour on 18 September 2004.

After a fruitless attempt to find a decent photographic location alongside the River Avon in the Sea Mills and Shirehampton area of Bristol, for the final shot of the day of the Pathfinder Tours 'Industrial Invader' railtour on 18 September 2004, I ended up at the tried and tested location of Hallen Marsh Junction, deep in the Avonmouth industrial complex. Catching the last rays of the setting sun 37047 & 37109 take the Filton line now running as the 1Z38 (15:21 booked, 16:37 actual) Whatley to Crewe. Despite the 76 minute late departure from Whatley, the tour had managed to make up a lot of time, and luckily in view of the rapidly failing light is pictured here running only 21 minutes down.

37051 & 37717 Berwick Middle School, Railsafe Trophy Winners 1998 pass through a very wet Worplesdon station with the Pathfinder Tours 1Z27 06:00 Gloucester to Salisbury 'Moon Raker' railtour on 13 December 2003. The blue van only parked in the nearest corner of the car park just before the train came, and then promptly left again. He wasn't even a photographer!

37051 & 37717 round the curve between Laverstock South and Tunnel Junctions at Salisbury with the Pathfinder Tours 1Z27 06:00 Gloucester to Salisbury 'Moon Raker' railtour in pouring rain on 13 December 2003. The line in the background is the Laverstock North to South chord, which had just witnessed the passage of Southern Railway 4-6-2 34067 Tangmere, which of course I was not in a position to photograph from this bridge!

Immaculate ex-works 37057 Viking & 37051 Merehead (at the time the only two Class 37s in the then new EWS livery) approach Clink (near Frome) on 21 June 1996 with the 1Z56 09:30 Euston to Cranmore special conveying guests to a double Foster Yeoman Class 59 naming ceremony. As well as the repaints, 37051 had been named Merehead especially for the event, which ironically could not take place at Merehead Quarry due to space and safety constraints. The East Somerset Railway's station at Cranmore was chosen instead..

I only just got this one in the sun! 37065 finds its only little patch of sunshine as it leaves Didcot Yard and approaches Didcot North Junction with a train of spoil wagons for the nearby Appleford civil engineers tip. The date is 2 July 1997, and although the Mainline livery looks fresh here, it was already obsolete, and would soon be swept aside in a sea of EWS red.

Golden late evening lighting at Tackley on 23 May 2009 as 37069 & 37602 head northwards with the Spitfire Railtours 1Z45 16:36 Weymouth to Crewe 'Wessexman' railtour. Although running exactly to time at Didcot the train was five minutes early at Tackley which implies some very fast running through Oxford. In the still air the pair of tractors could easily be heard approaching from several miles away.

37109 passes Heap Bridge on 7 March 2010 with the 2J64 10:06 Rawtenstall to Heywood service, during the East Lancashire Railway's Diesel Gala. The two maroon coaches slightly spoil the early 1980s effect, although if the 37 wasn't carrying TOPS numbers and had working headcodes, it would certainly fit with the late 1960s / early 1970s period.

37109 passes Heap Bridge on 7 March 2010 with the 2J81 13:55 Heywood to Rawtenstall service, during the East Lancashire Railway's Diesel Gala. Three hours earlier I had photographed 37109 at the same location but coming the other way. This proves how far the sun moves round if you stay at one location long enough!

37109 storms past Burrs on 7 March 2010 with the 2J81 13:55 Heywood to Rawtenstall service, during the East Lancashire Railway's Diesel Gala. This just shows how easy it is to chase trains on a preserved line. Despite having a long walk back to the car after photographing 37109 at Heap Bridge, and an even longer walk to get to this location, there was still plenty of time to find the ideal photographic spot. Even then it was a while before the characteristic English Electric racket heralded the arrival of the train.

37113 Radio Highland & 37235 disturb the peace of the Vale of White Horse as they pass Compton Beauchamp with the 4L65 06:25 Pengam to Felixstowe freightliner on 24 July 1992. This working was allocated Class 37 haulage for a couple of years, and I photographed it as often as work commitments would allow, which in retrospect was not enough! There was certainly no problem in knowing when it was coming, as it could usually be heard leaving Swindon several miles away!

After the failure of 37023 at Tulloch, classmate 37114 City of Worcester was left to carry on single handed over the West Highland and Oban lines with the Mercia Railtours 'Tiberius Kirk' railtour on 24 July 1999. Help eventually arrived in the shape of 37116 which was attached at Crianlarich. After its mammoth struggle with the severe West Highland gradients, 37114 is pictured crossing Achallader Viaduct in typically grim weather. The racket of a single 37 lifting a twelve coach train up the ferocious gradient out of Oban must have been truly impressive, a feat made even more impressive by the predictable West Highland rain that was falling at the time!

37116 Sister Dora approaches Muir of Ord with the Sundays only 6H58 18:35 Inverness to Georgemas Junction Enterprise service on 23 May 1999. Just two tanker containers on this exceedingly unusual freight working, unusual in that it ran on a Sunday on a line that had no other booked freight, and that the featherweight load traveled such a huge distance to a spot in the middle of nowhere, which at the time was the UK's furthest north freight destination. There was plenty of warning of 37116's approach, not just the inevitable Class 37 growl that can be heard for miles, but also because I heard it leaving Inverness on the scanner via the RETB system.

37140 approaches the level crossing at Knodishall Green on 18 April 1996 with the 7L20 09:08 Willesden to Leiston nuclear flask. Note the very unusual feature of the line at this point for a UK railway - no lineside fencing on one side of the track. As I suspected, the Health and Safety Gestapo wouldn't let this highly dangerous situation continue, and on a subsequent visit I noticed that a fence had been installed to protect the local population (such as it is) from the extreme of danger of a single weekly train traveling at 20 mph!

9400hp in one picture, although some of it is going in the opposite direction! 37142 pilots 50015 Valiant & 50008 Thunderer through Totnes on 23 November 1991 with the Pathfinder Tours 1Z37 00:30 Manchester Piccadilly to Newquay 'Valiant Thunderer' (what else!) railtour. The 37 was attached at Newton Abbot and worked through to Plymouth, as 50015 had a defective speedometer. They are seen here passing the 09:25 Penzance to Edinburgh 'Cornishman'.

37170 arrives at Crianlarich with the 7D54 11:54 Fort William to Coatbridge aluminuim ingots on 28 April 1998. The bright silver coloured ten tonne blocks of aluminium can clearly be seen on the open wagons. These are the products of the Alcan smelter at Fort William which produces around 40,000 tonnes of these ingots each year using the 85 megawatts of power generated by a hydro electric power station fed from Loch Treig. The train is just approaching the junction with the Oban line, which can be seen heading off to the left.

The sheep take no notice as 37174 & 37109 pass Lamington with the Pathfinder Tours 1Z35 06:14 Swindon to Inverness 'Lord of the Isles' railtour on 9 April 2004. The bridge in the background carries the B7055 road across the infant River Clyde. Note also some recent deforestation on the hill in the background.

By the time the Pathfinder Tours 1Z35 06:14 Swindon to Inverness 'Lord of the Isles' railtour arrived in the Perth area on 9 April 2004, it was nearly dark. With the camera cranked up to ISO 1600, 37174 & 37109 pass Lindores in the gathering gloom.

37174 & 37109 pass Killiecrankie on the Highland main line with the Pathfinder Tours 1Z18 08:15 Inverness to Swindon returning 'Lord of the Isles' railtour on 12 April 2004. The road is the old A9, now thankfully bypassed and free of traffic at this point, which saved any explanations as to why I was standing on a stepladder next to a wall in the middle of nowhere! As the weather was so poor, instead of the usual highland picture, I decided to try something different, using the wall and the old footbridge as a frame for the locos.

37174 & 37109 pass a slightly misty Forteviot with the Pathfinder Tours 1Z18 08:15 Inverness to Swindon returning 'Lord of the Isles' railtour on 12 April 2004. The 25 minute stop at Perth had easily let me get ahead of the train after seeing it at Killiecrankie. In fact I had overtaken it almost a soon as I got back on the A9!

37174 (unofficially named The Angel of the North) passes Yarnton on 2 June 2004 with the 6M65 18:16 Didcot to Carlisle Enterprise, which is effectively a MoD service. This was one of the 37174's final revenue earning workings, as it was moved into the WNTR tactical reserve pool at the end of the month and then withdrawn. As late as 2004 it was still possible to see a couple of freight trains hauled by heritage traction heading northwards in the Oxford area in the evening. Such was the case on this evening, as five minutes after this train passed, 37667 followed with the 6M28 18:28 Didcot to Bescot departmental working. Both these trains were booked for Class 66s and although other traction did turn up, to get two 37s and in sunshine was definitely a bonus!

37178 & 47238 Bescot Yard pass Kings Sutton with the 6M79 14:36 Eastleigh to Crewe Basford Hall MoD stores train on 20 July 1993. The ideal combination of a sweeping curve with an impressive background and a location where northbound trains can be photographed with the sun on the nose in the evening ensures that Kings Sutton remains a popular spot for photographers, with the bridge often getting very crowded. As with various other well known spots I have noticed that the number of photographers increases as the years go by, while the variety of traction steadily dwindles!

37190 finds a lucky patch of sun amid the trees, as it approaches Bewdley on 2 October 2004 with the 12:00 Kidderminster to Bridgnorth service, during the Severn Valley Railway's Diesel Gala. In the late 1980s this locomotive was renumbered 37314 and used was exclusively for steel traffic from Motherwell depot. It has since reverted to this number in preservation.

37193 & 37071 pass Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station with the 6M47 10:50 Lackenby to Corby rolled coil steel train on 1 July 1985. How times change, I think I was the only photographer on this bridge all day, and of course there was a procession of freight trains all with classic traction. If this scene was to be repeated today (it can't as there are no Network Rail registered blue Class 37s) virtually every railway photographer in the country would be after it!

In the pouring rain DRS 37194 & 37229 pass Codsall Wood (between Wolverhampton and Telford) with the Pathfinder Tours 1Z20 05:37 Swindon to Preston 'Yo-Ho-Ho' railtour on 29 December 2006. It was running 5 minutes early at this point, which meant I could get back in the car and out of the rain earlier than expected. The miserable weather hasn't deterred a couple of 'bellowers'!

37197 & 37158 arrive at Llandrindod Wells on 26 May 1996 with the diverted 06:49 Margam to Llanwern steel train. This was one of a number of steel trains diverted over the Central Wales Line over the Bank Holiday weekend due to engineering works in South Wales. An amazing diversion considering the short distance over basically level track between Margam and Llanwern had been changed into a tremendous detour via a reversal at Craven Arms, over a single track line with some fearsome gradients!

37197, wearing its short lived Riley & Sons two tone green livery, emerges from the bushes at Nant-y-Derry with the 1Z77 09:13 Crewe to Cardiff Central rugby special on 23 August 2003. This loco has certainly had its fair share of liveries since privatisation, as since this picture was taken it has appeared in WCRC maroon for working the Royal Scotsman, and then DRS blue.