After several early mornings stewarding our excellent 'Three Peaks from a Seat' (with various Class 37s) charity railtour for Railway Children, a short lie in preceded a trip to Telford Steam Railway (TSR) for this very aptly named fixture. It sounded like one of those opportunities that couldn't be turned down, Class 37 cranks aplenty in Crewe (not far away), a '37' (263) that hadn't worked in preservation so a 'winner' for many, a thrashy line, albeit not very long, and a Class 08 (757) - everyone loves a 'Gronk'. This was evidenced by over 122 participants, despite the short notice of the fixture which had only opened to bookings six days beforehand.

I reached Telford before 09.30 for the 10.30 start and already it looked as though the whole train full had arrived. The weather was scorching (not quite 37o!), the '37' parked on the buffers end at Spring Village (TRACKmaps 4 p22E 2018) looked resplendent in grey, absolutely superb, with the '08' out of sight on the other end. For social distancing and boarding ease, as the train was four coaches long, we were all ushered to the lengthier Horsehay & Dawley platform some 100 yards up the road.

With everyone on board, the '08', in Post Office red livery, led for the first 10.30 trip with the '37' assisting on the rear for part of the run up to Lawley Village, to about where the platform was. On return the '37' diverged right back to Spring Village, before the '08' (front then rear)/'37' (rear then front) combo returned to Horsehay & Dawley via Lawley Village. This trip was repeated in full twice with, at varying stages, the 08 doing all the work and sometimes the 37 assisting on the uphill climbs. People wanted the 37 to do nothing to ensure the Gronk worked for that all important red pen line. The second trip was around 11.30. The event also included complimentary hot drinks for participants.

By special arrangement there were two photo runs, (although sadly only two photos were received for BLN) with the 08 taking the train firstly to the junction of the two lines and secondly just short of the junction for photographers on Horsehay & Dawley platform and the hordes on the overbridge to grab a photo or video of the 37 in motion. One further full round trip was made, starting around 12.30, before the final half trip again via Lawley Village to return the stock and locos to Spring Village.

This was an excellent Sunday morning; many thanks to the volunteers at the Telford Steam Railway for their organisation and for making the Society stewards and passengers so welcome. £3,000 was raised for their extension projects, a superb effort that greatly exceeded expectations and delighted the Railway, particularly given the short notice of the whole event. In a free on train raffle the Railway donated an on the day cab ride and another participant won a future diesel experience with them.

The main legs were around 50ch each, so if you did all the moves, it was around 9m 20ch in total, with the two photo runs included, although it is difficult to be precise on the exact 37 and 08 split. The Society was also particularly grateful to Telford Steam Railway for very kindly donating an excellent raffle prize of a driver/footplate experience (Steam/Diesel) for our Sat 3 Jul 'Sinfin Syphons' railtour.

37263 with the train in the background as Kev Adlam presents the cheque to the Telford Steam Railway
[© Kev Adlam 2021]

37263
[© Kev Adlam 2021]