30th Aug 1985

At the time of my first visit the stabling point alongside the station was busy, busy, busy, with light engine movements seemingly constant. Here, a pair of Class 37s, nos. 37089 and 37001 head off together light engine, presumably down the branch to the port of Felixstowe and another loaded container train.

What happened to these two? Well, 37089 became "heavyweight" Class 37/7 no. 37708 in 1988. Once its career finished in normal service with EWS it was shipped over to France in 1999 as part of the fleet sent over there to operate engineering trains on the high speed line construction trains, and came back in 2000. After a long period in storage it was scrapped at Rotherham in 2008. 37001 interestingly became numerically adjacent no. 37707 in 1987, but didn't venture to France and had a longer career with EWS instead. I even had haulage from it on a couple of railtours. But time caught up with 37707 and it was scrapped in 2011. The two locos met at least one more time many years later: as 37708 and 37707 they worked a farewell tour on the Eastgate branch in Northumberland in 1993.