"Given the strength of the task force, any leaves that had fallen vaguely into the vicinity of a West Midlands railway line must by this time have been cowering in fear."
Battleworn and doomed 37384 - one of the first two operational locos to join the '99 WKMS pool - gunks the down road of the Lickey Incline at the old Bromsgrove station, on 6th October 1999.
For the fan of first generation diesels, 1999 brought an almighty shock to the system. That year, vintage EWS freight locos were being taken out of traffic so quickly that if you spent a day shooting Kodachrome at Bescot, you could expect a couple of the locos you photographed to have left the fleet by the time your slides came back from processing. It really was that bad.
But the autumn brought glad tidings. A need to combat the slippery effects of leaf fall meant that trackwork in key locations would need to be doused in Sandite - the liquid-form adhesion aid. In some areas, Sandite treatment had become a bigger issue in the latter 1990s, as lineside vegetation had been allowed to pervade more than it had in the past. And in the final year before the Railtrack MPVs were due to take over, Sandite application was still a routine Class 37 duty. Hence, joyous murmurs abounded as EWS prepared to dig out some absolute bangers from their stocks of inactive 'Syphons', and restore them to life...
37262 was another near-death cracker, prized out of long-term store for the season and still wearing a faded rendition of the all-over engineers' grey. It's seen at Stoke Works heading for the Golden Valley route, on 13th October 1999.
Class 37s denoted as "Sandite-fitted" would house a Sandite hopper within the actual locomotive, and distribute the substance themselves, from a pipe next to the front or rear wheel. With no additional rolling stock required, the locos could carry out the entire mission light engine. When distributing the Sandite whilst the engine was idling (as would occur during a down trip on the Lickey Incline), you could hear the faint 'squidging' of the Sandite pump as the loco passed. The liquid itself is beige in colour, and not greatly conspicuous.
Prior to the '99 season, some 37s already had hoppers fitted. Those that didn't were fitted with new hoppers before becoming active. The new for '99 hoppers, fitted at Doncaster, had a higher capacity than the old ones.
Like many of the 37s selected for the Sandite pool, 37680 had been gainfully employed up until the summer of '99. Here's the clay-dust-coated workhorse slogging up the Camp Hill line at Moseley with the Cliffe Vale - St Blazey empties on 26th July 1999. The Class 60s were just displacing the 37s from this turn, leaving china clay Type 3s available for Sandite work. And talking of Cornish clay duties, also in the '99 Sandite pool were 37669 and 37670, which had famously united on the last Type 3-hauled 'Silver Bullet' out of Burngullow in summer '95.
Bescot depot's Sandite locos were drawn from the WKMS pool, which was emerging as early as August. At that stage the pool was denoted as "EWS - WQ Class 37 (stored for Sandite cover)", and on the 20th of the month, triple grey 37131 and 'Dutch' 37384 were transferred in as operational locos. This duo had been working off Bescot through the height of the summer, but had essentially run out of work by August as the Class 66 influx rapidly swelled. They joined 37275, which had been stored unserviceable, but was considered viable as a Sandite loco. However, '275 was dumped back out of the pool in early September, returning to store as unusable.
In September, the contents of the pool grew, and simultaneously some locos started to qualify as active, with Bescot allocations. The first 37s designated active, on 17th September, were: 37131, 37152, 37384 and 37519. The pool itself was larger by this time, but the rest of the locos were still not ready for action.
At the height of the season, 37178 gunks the Lickey on 3rd November 1999.
The first four Bescot actives were joined a week later by: 37229, 37255 (dragged out of unserviceable store because it was already Sandite-fitted), 37503, 37668, 37680, 37689 and 37698.
And then on 1st October, a further 20 'Syphons' went active for Sandite duties off Bescot. Namely: 37153, 37154, 37178, 37230, 37262, 37263, 37520, 37521, 37667, 37669, 37670, 37673, 37674, 37675, 37677, 37682, 37684, 37688, 37694 and 37695.
With all locos now active, the pool was reclassified as "EWS - BS Class 37 (Sandite-fitted)".
Unlike the 37/0s and 37/3s, the 37/5s more commonly appeared in EWS red. This is 37667 'Meldon Quarry Centenary' issuing a stern warning to those rapidly browning leaves at the Bromsgrove turnaround point, on 27th October 1999.
Given the strength of the task force, any leaves that had fallen vaguely into the vicinity of a West Midlands railway line must by this time have been cowering in fear. There were no exits from the pool until 5th November, when 37519 left, so the volume was at its max through the whole of October.
Apart from the replacement of 37673 with 37043, the pool then remained the same until the end of the fall season in mid December. At that point, most of the pool was immediately re-assigned, as follows...
37131 - Into store.
37152 - Into store.
37153 - For component recovery.
37154 - Into store.
37178 - Into store.
37229 - Into store.
37255 - For component recovery.
37262 - Into store.
37263 - Into store.
37384 - For component recovery.
37503 - To WKBN at Toton.
37520 - To WKMB at Motherwell.
37521 - To WKBN at Toton.
37667 - To WKMB at Motherwell.
37668 - To WKBN at Toton.
37669 - To WKBN at Toton.
37670 - To WKMB at Motherwell.
37677 - Into store.
37680 - Into store.
37684 - To WKMB at Motherwell.
37688 - To WKBN at Toton.
37694 - To WKBN at Toton.
37695 - To WKBN at Toton.
37698 - To WKBN at Toton.
Bescot TMD. Home to 'Sandite Syphons' like 37682 'Hartlepool Pipe Mill' in 1999.
The pool was not, however, closed down in December. It remained open until EWS had decided what to do with the remaining six locos. That process would take over three months, with the final two transfers effecting in late March 2000. But the last six locos were eventually re-assigned as follows...
5th January 2000
37230 - Into store.
11th January 2000
37043 - Into store.
25th February 2000
37675 - To WKBN at Toton.
37689 - To WKBN at Toton.
21st March 2000
37674 - To WKMB at Motherwell.
37682 - To WKMB at Motherwell.
One of the fortunate members of the pool - 37688 went on to work further EWS traffic off Toton, before moving on to a life beyond EWS. Here it is back on the Hull - Baglan Bay acid tanks, 4th July 2001.
One of the pool's most obvious targets for daily dollopings of Sandite was the Lickey Incline. It was possible that the Lickey and Sapperton could be Sandited in a single mission from Bescot. However, there were two separate capacities of loco in the '99 pool, and this obviously affected the amount of track they could treat.
The full "Lickey Bank and Golden Valley with bells on" trip would first involve the loco being dispatched from Bescot, and coating the down road of the Lickey. It would then halt at Bankers Bridge, Bromsgrove, reverse, head back up the bank to coat the up road, and drop into the banking siding at Blackwell. Then it would make another trip down the Lickey, this time passing straight through Bromsgrove and heading for the Golden Valley. The return was via the same route, so if the loco wasn't completely drained of gunk it could coat the Lickey northbound again in the evening.
In action again on the Lickey, on 26th October 1999, 'Dutch' liveried 37384 drifts down past Vigo near Burcot.
But the arrangements varied - presumably according to the loco's Sandite capacity, and perhaps also the time of the season. Not all missions doubled back on the Lickey, and some only ran from Bescot to Bromsgrove.
From the 2000 fall season, the intention was for the new Railtrack MPVs to handle most of the Sandite duties. But problems with the new vehicles prompted a regime of emergency Class 37 cover. There would be another WKMS Class 37 pool in Y2K, but this time it was officially based at Toton for systemwide use, and included no 37/0s or 37/3s. Unofficially, Bescot was allocated just one Sandite-fitted 37 in Y2K - 37674. The other unofficial local Sandite Class 37 bases that year included Canton, Didcot, Eastleigh, Margam, Millerhill, St Blazey, Temple Mills and Wigan.
The future. A sight no Class 37 fan wanted to see at the end of summer 2000 - new Railtrack MPV DR98967 flexes its versatilities at Barnt Green.
Despite the use of 37s for Sandite work in 2000, the West Midlands saw nothing like the feast of near-death 'Sandite Syphons' it had enjoyed in 1999. Some things were destined to remain in the twentieth century.
More '99 'Sandite Syphon' action from Bromsgrove and the Lickey Incline.