Landore allocatted Class 37 D6931 pictured carrying a Central Wales line headlight whilst still in green livery. The date and location of the photograph isn’t known. Cyril Crawley / RCTS Photographic archive
Locomotive hauled trains using the Central Wales line between Craven Arms and Pantyffynnon in the late 1960’s and 1970’s utilised Class 37 locomotives fitted with headlamps. These headlamps were mounted between the nose end lamp brackets. What doesn’t appear clear from what has been published is precisely which locomotives were so fitted and when. Thus, the aim of this dilemma is to try and establish which locomotives were so fitted and when. The requirement ceased by early 1980 when portable headlamps started to be used instead.
Locomotives so fitted were drawn from the Landore (87E – LE) allocation with fifteen different locomotives identified as having been fitted at various times. However, it seems that the norm was only ever to have four or five locomotives fitted at anyone time. Since 1974 all locomotives so fitted also possessed a steam heat generator. Prior to that there was a mix of locomotives with/without steam heat generators fitted.
The earliest traced mention of Central Wales line headlamps is with regard to DMU’s (September 1967 ‘Modern Railways’ – p.515). Whether locomotives were so fitted then isn’t clear. The earliest mention with regard to locomotives so far traced comes in the January 1969 edition of ‘The Railway Observer’ (p.18). There it states that a new allocation list of locomotives issued in October 1968 lists 6931-6934 as fitted with headlamps. However, 6889 had been so photographed that August with a headlamp suggesting locomotives had been fitted prior to October 1968. The July 1970 edition of ‘The Railway Observer’ (p.225) records 6882/9, 6932/3/4 as then fitted and that they had been removed from 6931/5. 6935 though can’t be correct as it was an Eastern Region locomotive at the time . Oddly, the January 1971 edition of ‘The Railway Observer’ (p.12) records 6889 as headlight fitted, possibly an error for 6887, and 6932/4 as headlight removed whilst the March 1971 edition of ‘The Railway Observer’ (p.91) records 6882/9, 6933 as fitted as at 31st December 1970. Clearly some swapping had taken place in the first few years as it did in later years.
Below is a chronolgical summary of locomotives believed to have been fitted. As more emerges this summary will be refined.
| From | To | Locomotives |
| cAugust 1968 | cOctober 1968 | 6889 |
| cOctober 1968 | cMay 1969 | 6889, 6931, 6932, 6933, 6934 |
| cMay 1969 | cMay 1970 | 6882, 6889, 6931, 6932, 6933, 6934 |
| cMay 1970 | October 1970 | 6882, 6889, 6932, 6933, 6934 |
| October 1970 | May 1971 | 6882, 6887, 6889, 6933 |
| May 1971 | Spring 1972? | 6877, 6887, 6889, 6933 |
| Spring 1972? | February 1974 | 6877, 6887, 6888, 6889, 6931, 6933 |
| February 1974 | March 1974 | 6887, 6888, 6889, 6892, 6931, 6933 |
| March 1974 | September 1974 | 37188, 37189, 37190, 37192 |
| September 1974 | October 1974 | 37177, 37180, 37188, 37190 |
| October 1974 | May 1976 | 37177, 37180, 37181, 37190 |
| May 1976 | September 1976 | 37177, 37181, 37182, 37190 |
| September 1976 | November 1976 | 37177, 37179, 37181, 37190 |
| November 1976 | mid 1977 | 37179, 37181, 37189, 37190 |
| mid 1977 | mid 1978 | 37177, 37181, 37187, 37188, 37190 |
| mid 1978 | cSpring 1979 | 37177, 37181, 37187, 37188, 37191 |
| cSpring 1979 | cSummer 1979 | 37177, 37187, 37188, 37191 |
| cSummer 1979 | cAutumn 1979 | 37177, 37187, 37188, 37191, 37192 |
| cAutumn 1979 | cAutumn 1980 | 37177, 37188, 37191, 37192 |
For each of these locomotives a listing of dates observed when fitted with headlamps can be viewed by clicking the individual locomotive number in the list below. Further observations or references to photographs etc would be very much welcomed. Also, sightings and photographic references to the locomotives in question not carrying headlamps when the table suggests they did.
| Locomotive | Period fitted |
| 6877 – 37177 | May 1971 – February 1974, September 1974 – November 1976, mid1977 – Autumn 1980 |
| 37179 | September 1976 – mid 1977 |
| 37180 | September 1974 – May 1976 |
| 37181 | October 1974 – Spring 1979 |
| 6882 – 37182 | (by mid 1969 – after January 1971)?, May 1976 – September 1976 |
| 6887 – 37187 | October 1970 – March 1974, mid 1977 – Autumn 1979 |
| 6888 – 37188 | Spring 1972? – October 1974, mid 1977 – Autumn 1980 |
| 6889 – 37189 | cAugust 1968 – September 1974, November 1976 – Mid 1977 |
| 37190 | September 1974 – mid 1978 |
| 37191 | mid 1978 – Autumn 1980 |
| 6892 – 37192 | February – September 1974, Summer 1979 – Autumn 1980 |
| 6931 | cOctober 1968 – March 1974 |
| 6932 | cOctober 1968 – October 1970 |
| 6933 | cOctober 1968 – March 1974 |
| 6934 | cOctober 1968- October 1970 |
This is still very much a work in progress, thus comments, sightings and photographs that could be added to theis dilemma would be welcomed by Peter Hall.
This page is maintained by Peter Hall.
