When English, Welsh & Scottish Railways took over the the freight companies that had been operating services around the UK as separate entities, it placed an order for 250 locomotives from General Motors in the United States. The company realised that it would still need to carry out overhauls on some locomotives that came as part of the deal, and a plan was set in place to carry out the overhauls 'in-house' at Toton TMD in Nottinghamshire.

The main shed area, and the old training compound, at Toton had a number of 'life-expired' Class 37's stored in them which were awaiting a decision on their future. A couple of attempts were made to return one of these back to a serviceable condition, 37070, but other issues soon arose during testing and it was returned to store at the training compound. As part of the overhaul program, it had been identified that a vehicle would be needed to 'transport' removed and refurbished power units around the site as required. 37070 entered the shed where modifications were carried out to the requirements needed, it emerged carrying a new coat of paint, but a considerable amount of the bodywork was missing between the cabs.

As the number of overhauls increased, due to the realisation that even more 'old' locomotives would be needed, it was determined that another engine stand/transporter would be required to cope with the extra demand. Once again, a Class 37 was chosen, this time 37138 was chosen, and it entered Toton shed for modification emerging after undergoing similar treatment to 37070.

Both 'transporters' were modified further to accommodate engines from other classes of locomotives, but after a couple of years disuse, they were both moved to the training compound. Initially for storage, but they were later deemed surplus to requirements and were sold for scrap in July 2004

If you can perhaps provide some information, or photographs, for the 'EWS Internal Users', please get in touch using this contact form.

Click on Thumbnails below to see a larger image. [ 5 available ]