BR Class 37 - 37003
"Dereham Neatherd High School"

British Railways Class 37 Diesel-Electric

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The British Railway Class 37, also know as English Electric Type 3, is a class of diesel-electric locomotive that was built by Vulcan Foundry & Robert Stephenson & Hawthorns between

1960 - 1965, a total of 309 were produced. 

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The class was built to be able to easily work passenger trains including the "high" speed Intercity services predominantly within the Eastern Region with freight workings across the rest of the country. They soon became a common sight across the whole country with the majority being allocated to Cardiff Canton, Thornaby & Landore. They quickly became on of the mainstays of the BR fleet and quickly earnt their reputation has powerful and reliable class of locomotive. After the privatisation of the railways many freight & charter companies bought Class 37s from BR which help in turn help to contribute to the Class 37's becoming one of the longest surviving classes to date and to be one out of only two classes of locomotive to have never official fully withdrawn from mainline working.

Out of the 309 built 102 are still active today, with 35 being preserved across Britain's Heritage Railways and 67 still being used by mainline operating companies. 

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37003

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37003 was released from Vulcan Foundry Works on 28th February 1960, originally as D6703, and allocated to Stratford (30A). In April 1963 the locomotive was named " First East Anglian Regiment" but it was never unveiled due to a few days before the ceremony the three regiments of East Anglia combined to become The East Anglian Regiment. Over the course of its working life it was transferred to March, Wath, Tinsley & Thornaby. During 1989 at Tinsley Depot the locomotive was given the unofficial name of "Tiger Moth" which it held until 1992 upon an overhaul at Doncaster. 37003 was then withdrawn from traffic in 1994 and then stored at Bescot and Crewe, until The Class 37 Locomotive Group purchased it in 1998.​

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The locomotive was then moved to the East Anglian Railway Museum in Chappel. It then proceed to move to the Wensleydale Railway in 2004, then to Locomotion in Shildon in 2007 until arriving at the Mid-Norfolk Railway in 2009. Since it's time at the MNR it was named "Dereham Neatherd High School" in 2012. The locomotive was withdrawn from service in 2016 due to a leaking cylinder liner and was sent away to UKRL Leicester in 2017 where unfortunately a major issue with the engine was found, the locomotive has since been at Leicester receiving repairs.