65 Years of Class 37s - Diesel Gala Bash - Severn Valley Railway - October 2025

2025 marks the 65th anniversary of the ever popular first generation diesel loco known as the Class 37, affectionately known as 'Tractors' by railway enthusiasts, and the Severn Valley Railway held a special four day event to commemorate the anniversary of the Class 37s to honour their 65 years of stalwart service on both the mainline and in preservation on heritage railways across the United Kingdom.

We went to the event on three of the four days, and the event had over 10x Class 37s in attendance with all of them performing faultlessly over the four busy days that they performed on the Severn Valley Railway, with 09107 seen doing some shunting on the first day, and 20048 joining the fun on the Friday and Saturday parts of the event, the latter of which we didn't film it on.

The Class 37s in attendance were:
37250 from the Wensleydale Railway
37508 from Loram UK
37428 (D6948) from the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway
37263 based on the Severn Valley Railway
37518 from West Coast Railways
37688 from D05 Preservation Ltd
37901 from Europhoenix Ltd
37264 from the North Yorkshire Moors Railway
37423 from Europhoenix Ltd
37501 from Europhoenix Ltd

Of all the 10x 37s that we had filmed and rode on, our favourite was 37250 in striking EWS livery, as it was the first time in over 20 years that we have rode behind a Class 37 in this particular livery since the final days of the Cardiff to Rhymney loco-hauled services in which the EWS Class 37 was seen with Virgin Trains Mk2 coaches, with our fondest memories being that we rode on this train from Cardiff Central to Caerphilly back in 2005.

So, getting to ride behind 37250 in EWS livery was very special for us both.

Meanwhile, we could only film 37501 once on the Saturday due to needing to head home on that day, but as long as we got her in our film, we don't mind at all.

Overall, we enjoyed the three days that we were at the event, and we hope that the Class 37s will continue to run in service for many more years to come.

Filmed on
Thursday 2nd October, 2025
Friday 3rd October, 2025
Saturday 4th October, 2025

Filmed at Stations
Hampton Loade
Bridgnorth
Kidderminster
Bewdley
Arley
Highley

Filmed and Produced by
Thomas Coombes
Scott Coombes

(C) 2025 S.T.C Rail Productions