Today's historic photo of the day: A class 37 exactly 37 years ago today. English Electric Type 3 diesel locomotive 37422 sits at the head of a Glasgow-bound British Rail West Highland Line #train from Oban at the junction station of Crianlarich, Scotland, UK, April 22 1988.
Crianlarich is 96km north-west of Glasgow by rail, served by West Highland line trains from Glasgow that from Crianlarich run either north to Fort William and Mallaig or west to Oban.
Loco-hauled West Highland line trains were replaced by self-propelled railcars in late 1988 or early 1989. Most 37 class locos have now been retired, but a number have been preserved and a handful do continue to run in revenue service today although they are used on secondary services and no longer haul passenger trains.
37422 found herself in ownership of freight operator Direct Rail Services after privatisation of British Rail. She remained operational for many years, but is now in storage.
Today's West Highland service run by Scotrail offers 6 return services each day operated by modern railcars. Whilst today's trains are less characterful than the class 37s of the 1980s, and you can no longer stick your head through the window, the service is faster and more frequent, and the West Highland scenery is no less spectacular.
There is today also a loco-hauled overnight sleeper train between Fort William and London operated by Caledonian Sleeper that calls here at Crianlarich en-route
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