Found this VHS cassette and basically just thought this would be great to put on youtube, so you can watch the history of trains in south wales in the 80's
Brilliant !!!!!! Grew up in the 1970s. The growl of a class 37 hauling wagons up the Rhondda valley to N.C.B. Mardy colliery is unforgettable. Sadly, that ended on 22nd of August 1986. If I had a time machine to go back, and a top digital camcorder.......
This is ace. I think if I was a train driver in the 80s/90s driving a class 37, I'd feel like I'd really made it...that sound...plus it was before the world went mad, better times. Thanks for uploading, this is gold
Excuse me you "think" you were a train driver back in the 80s? Well unless you have dementia or amnesia you either were a train driver or not.... Which is it
Class 37's simply the best.. They have been the workhorses of the British railway operations both rail freight and passenger trains for many decades especially in Wales and Cumbria... I love the sound of the engine at idle and when moving off
I remember well the double headed iron ore trains from Tyne Dock to Consett in County Durham, a brutal branch line with two sections of i in 35, the sound of two English Electric engines at full throttle will live with me forever...
class 37s still look better than any yank trains I recall when kid living at home...in middle of the still of night hearing them in the distance pulling coal to the docks in cardiff...
I remember these flying past wink ups camp in mid 80s when I was just a kid. I never really paid attention to them in the day, but at night I’d hear them thundering through. Scared me a little until I grew up. I am way way older now yet I still love these engines. I now live by the Walsh coast and I hear them every now and then still thundering through flint.
I agree that these trains hauled by class 37s were a sight to see and to listen to, although I I think they were responsible for making my husband deaf.
Great piece of nostalgia. For a while I lived about a mile south of the Ebbw Vale steel works, the sound of a pair of 37's climbing up the valley was something to behold:-). Thanks for posting this video
Brilliant Video more of these rail documentary videos it gives you an insight into how versatile the class 37s were back in the 80s , 90s and even the 00s 👍
I grew up in the south east of England where trains were catapillars of coaches with flat fronts and doors you had to slam. I wanted all the rails torn up and replaced with more roads. I wasn't until I was older and moved away and then saw films like this that I realised how exciting trains were and what I'd missed.
The man or men who designed these engines are so awesome 😎 and brilliant in my eyes 👀, fantastic, brilliant, and most off all AWESOME 😎, thank you so much, 😎👍🇳🇿🌈😁😎 kiwi Pip from New Zealand, wish we had some here, but ok with videos, thanks again 😎👍🇳🇿🌈😁😎.
Empire pool at start....now where stadium is.....good old days when wales was still an international stalwart in steel and coal domination. sad its gone.
I can still recall the class 37 that derailed and ended on its side and lay there for days until the crane recovery arrived and slowly placed it back onto its wheels...The train ran away from the Windsor colliery and picking up to much speed going down track to abertridwr it left the rails has it crossed over the points at speed and taking the train into a different direction over she went!
Please do, Michael, am enjoying them all. I get excited watching our Aussie trains, as well...something about rail, you can't beat it for long land travel and unlike a car, you can get up and walk along the carriage to stretch your legs..and sometimes on an overnighter, into the dining car too...lol.
I believe they used Suzler engines in these mainly because they could order them to the correct HP rating - Alco basically said you get what we give you - The NSW railways in Australia were constantly under powered because Alco and GE refused to make engines to the HP requested by the NSWGR
I remember the Waterman 47s being thrashed out of Cardiff to get up the incline to Queen ST. I jumped on at Cardiff and off at Queen St just for the experience. The triple headed 37s taking ore from Port docks to Llanwern Steelworks. I was living in North Cornelly and I was gliding in Stormey Down at 13 yo, 300' above sea level. I could hear them at night but could'nt catch them and I was too young to drive. lol. Had I known they were triple headed I would camped the night at Pyle station. The line from Margam to Pyle was reletavly flat after Pyle it got a steeper and steeper towards the summit. So they would have been on full power all the way from Margam. Do you have a video of them climing up Stormey bank because I still have that sound in my head.
Can I ask something that may sound silly? Why does the Class 37 sound so different to say a HST Class 43 power car? They're both diesel engines. Also, could a HST power car pull a freight train if it had to?
Different top RPM's and about 15 years age difference, plus they are made by different manufactuers entirely for certain applications, same reason all petrol cars don't sound the same
HST has wrong gearing for freight,Power cars generally have higher revving engines like cat or Cummins for quick stop starts .Class 37s and 40s etc have big old slow revving engines that give huge torque at low rpm ideal for freight .Class 66s have 2 stroke diesels and sound like worn out washing machines ( only joking)
Look like it they would leveled off the load in each wagon they could have move a lot more cold. How many tons was this one unit moving? Have they since this vide up graded the power units? Thanks for a very good video. looked good on my wide screen. the country side looked good too.
The hopper type wagons carry 33 tons of coal. The brown box like mineral wagons are 21 ton minfits. The hopper wagons were mostly used on MGR trains to power stations and the like. Locomotives hauling an MGR train had to be fitted with electronic slow speed control which the driver engaged at loading and unloading sites. This allowed the train to maintain a constant fixed slow speed while being automatically loaded and unloaded without stopping. The number of wagons varied with the route and the type of locomotive used over it, but was generally about 30 to 35. That makes around 1100 tons of coal per train. The reason why the wagons appear not loaded to the top is because the pulverized coal they were originally designed for would gradually settle after loading. Quite a reasonable article here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merry-go-round_train
@@markturner4219 the MGR wagons was classed as 26 / 32 tons . also if the coal was fine and wet you was able to get up to the weight without filling to the top . i used to work MGR trains out of knottingley.
I’d like to know wale’s horn codes, as in long, long, short, long which is the crossing for America, I know one long is in Britain and other areas, but what about the reverse code? Or the start up code?
If you're really into railroading both passenger and freight in the British Isles, a trip to Wales seems entirely worthwhile. Check out the trains' Chicago & North Western-style running in Wales as well as in England and Scotland. Seems to me that the C&NW based its left-handed operations because of the British Isles, but I recently found that it wasn't the case.
"Network rail decided they didn't want preserved locos hauling every day services" haha thats funny how come they're letting preserved locos on the mainline hauling every day services now? Passenger and freight??
@@antimosh Wheels were not slipping. Just lots of power going through those wheels, much more than is needed for what its pulling. There is a speed limit set there, hence power on, power off.
Why does it sound like they're always in and out of the throttle? Why don't they hold the rpm at one setting, it sounds like they are driving a truck with a automatic transmission
Great video thanks for uploading. If you are like me and you like your 37 action to be pre privatisation then 00:00 to 25:33 and 1:04:15 to the end will do you nicely!!
