We are delighted to announce that, in the last few days, the Group has acquired a heavily stripped 37261 ‘Caithness’ from DRS. Furthermore, the SRPS have agreed in principle that the locomotive can be stored at Bo’ness. The locomotive will arrive at Bo’ness without most of its major components because 37261 has undergone substantial component recovery. Over the long-term, the missing components will be sourced and, where resources and time permits, 37261 will be restored to full working order and become a member of the SRPS Diesel Fleet. This restoration can be expected to take several years. Furthermore, we can assure you that the acquisition of 37261 will not detract from the hard work that is currently being undertaken on 37025, 37403 and the type twos at Bo’ness. The Group remains steadfastly committed to completing the work on 37025 by the end of this year. While the restoration work on 37025 is now in its final stages, we will only complete this project with some assistance. As always, we are entirely dependent on the volunteers that come down to Bo’ness. We have volunteers working on 37025 at Bo’ness every weekend and on some week nights too. Any assistance you can offer will be very gratefully received – there are plenty of jobs to be done. If you can help in any way, please let contact Steven Ramage (details below) and he will let you know how you can get involved. Financially, there is still a shortfall of around £7,000 in the funding needed to complete the outstanding work on 37025. Please do what you can to help. This continued support will be invaluable in our efforts to return 37025 to the mainline. To help both 37025 and 37261 financially you can: • arrange a transfer to the Group’s bank account: Account number = 72756463 Sort Code = 87-37-12; • transfer money using the Group’s PayPal account: boilerfund@rocketmail; or • send a cheque made payable to ‘Scottish Thirty-Seven Group’ to: Nicholas Chadha, 13/5 Bruntsfield Avenue, Edinburgh, EH10 4EL. As always, all donations come with the promise of invitations to the first public run of 37025 with its boiler in operation and its first public run on the mainline. 37261 ‘Caithness’ – a forty-nine year history New to Darnell on 20 January 1965 as D6861, seventeen years were spent in BR’s Eastern Region before 37261 migrated north to join 37025, first at Eastfield from 1982, and then Inverness in 1985. It was during it’s time at Inverness that 261 became acquainted with the ‘Caithness’ nameplates and gained popularity as a sterling powerful performer all over the Highlands. Following another spell in BR’s Eastern Region between 1991 and 1994, 261 returned to Scotland for a further four years before finally migrating to Toton in December 1998. After only a few months, 37261 was withdrawn from traffic by EWS in February 1999. However, instead of heading for the scrapline like many other engines at the time, 37261 was given a lifeline and an eleven month trip to France. Upon its return, the erstwhile ‘Caithness’ was stored and initially sold to Ian Riley who restored it to working order and then to WCRC who regularly put it to work on the Royal Scotsman around Scotland. After a couple of years with WCRC, DRS bought the locomotive and operated it until 37261’s final withdrawal on 20 January 2014, exactly forty-nine years after being accepted to traffic. Should you have any questions or would like further information about 37025, 37261 or anything else relating to the Group, please get in touch with either me or one of the Group’s other directors. Neil McDonald Publicity Director Email: [email protected] Steven Ramage Chairman and Director Email: steveramage@aol
Posted on: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 06:39:20 +0000
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