Loco Haulage at Pontypool & New Inn - 3rd October to 6th October, 2023

This week featured quite a bit of loco haulage, in the form of three classic first generation Class 37s and two second generation Class 67s. All of these were filmed at Pontypool & New Inn.

On Wednesday, 37219 was seen on a driver route learning duty running from Cardiff Canton Sidings to Derby RTC (Network Rail). It's seen running from Hereford, having went up there earlier in the day.

The driver training run was intended to had back up to Hereford, then back down through the Welsh Marches and then back up to return to Derby, however, at the last minute, the rest of the working was terminated at Newport (South Wales) owing to a partial cancellation request.

On Friday, which was today, 37610 & 37421 top and tail a test train working heading from Derby RTC (Network Rail) to Crewe, heading via Newport (South Wales) and then back up once again. The 37s were running in place of the usually booked New Measurement Train HST test train set.

While waiting for the 37s to come back up, 67010 and 67025 were each seen on a One Wales Express express passenger service going in opposite directions.

One set was heading from Cardiff Central to Manchester Piccadilly, while the other set was heading from Holyhead to Cardiff Central.

37219 & 37421 are both former heritage locos that once ran at Blaenavon Railway in the 2010s, so seeing them both in the Pontypool area was a really nice sight to see.

Filmed and Produced by
Thomas Coombes

(C) 2023 Marches Productions