'The Sugar Loaf & Stormy Push-Pull' - Class 37s Return to Cardiff - 07/09/24

Today, we ventured out to film trains at Cardiff Central for the first time in a good couple of years, where we mainly saw Sprinters, Flirts, Hitachis and 197 units running on mainline passenger trains. Pacers are no longer seen at this station, having been withdrawn from service back in 2021.

The main reason for travelling to Cardiff today was for us to capture Class 37s operating on the 'Sugar Loaf & Stormy Push-Pull' railtour charter, which was running from Crewe to Cardiff Central, travelling via the Heart of Wales line connection at Craven Arms on the Welsh Marches mainline. The railtour featured the push-pull DBSO set, which was a mix of ScotRail and Inter-City Mark 3 coaches, with the Mark 2 DBSO coach, and a Mark 1 BR-Blue buffet car placed in the middle of the colourful consist.

Seeing Class 37s back in Cardiff Central for a brief visit really harkens back to the days in the 2000s when they were still in frontline service on the Cardiff to Rhymney passenger trains, which were ceased in December 2005, but made a brief return to service from 2019 to 2020.

ScotRail 37409 'Loch Awe' & BR-Green 37521 (D6817) were used on the railtour charter, top and tailing the train into Cardiff Central before they ran the empty stock into Cardiff Canton Sidings to begin preparations for the return leg of the charter later in two hours time.

We then travelled down to Newport (South Wales) to wait for the railtour to pass through, where it would run from Cardiff to Crewe, taking the line through Chepstow and Gloucester due to the line through Pontypool & New Inn being closed off for track relaying maintenance that was happening today. After filming a few service trains, and DBC 66162 on a steel freight train, 37521 & 37409 double-headed the railtour through Newport and head off back to Crewe, with the DBSO trailing behind at the rear.

Filmed on
Saturday 7th September, 2024

Filmed by
Thomas Coombes
Scott Coombes

Produced by
Thomas Coombes

(C) 2024 S.T.C Rail Productions