The Severn Valley Railway has announced that it will be welcoming a Class 37 locomotive for its Spring Diesel Festival.

Locomotive Services Group based Class 37 No. 37409 will be visiting for all four days (16-19th May 2024), which promises to see an intensive timetable in operation.

37409 was recently overhauled and painted into ScotRail livery, a livery it has never previously run in, though it was allocated to Wales and Scotland.

However, the livery allows the locomotive to represent the second generation of Class 37s that were refurbished by British Rail in the 1980s.

“This locomotive is newly restored, and recently returned to traffic in a very striking new livery,” said Jonathan ‘Gus’ Dunster, the SVR’s managing director. “It will be an honour to welcome 37409 to the Valley. Our event will be one of the first occasions on which it appears in this guise, and we’re very grateful to our friends at LSG, and delighted that, once again, they are giving such great support to our events.”

“Our first diesel event of 2024 is shaping up to be another very attractive event,” added Gus. “We’ll be making further guest announcements in due course, and very much look forward to welcoming diesel enthusiasts to the SVR.”