Hmmmm, not bad looking for a withdrawn locomotive, 25185 at Toton on December 3rd 1984 - see details below. Photograph courtesy Steve Morris
1965
D7535 was new to the Nottingham area (then M16) in March, one of a large batch of Class 25's used to oust steam from the Midland mainline, northwards from St Pancras to Toton, and travelling east to March and west to the Birmingham area. As with the majority of the last batches of Type 2's there was no train heating equipment fitted, these were freight machines, though during the summer season their use on passenger workings was common and often over quite lengthy distances.

1967
The LMR seemed to be never quite sure how it wanted to describe its allocation structure, thus in August the M16 allocation for D7535 changed to D16, still synonymous with the Nottingham area and Toton in particular.

1969
A move south came during July when 7535 moved to Willesden (D01).

1970
A brief move north came in May with 7535 off to the Birmingham Division (D02), but by July the locomotive was back at Willesden.

1971
Part of September was spent at Derby Works under repair, by December 7535 was back working off the Birmingham Division (D02).

1973
More time was spent at Derby Works during June, then it was off to Willesden again during July.

1975
A short move across town was made to Cricklewood during June.

1976
After six month at Cricklewood it was up to Longsight in January, then down to Crewe at the end of the summer timetable in October.

1978
February and March were spent at Derby Works, the repair included the fitting of dual braking equipment..

1981
25185 was withdrawn briefly during February, but quickly reinstated to Springs Branch the same month.

1982
The last transfer for 25185 came in October when it was transferred to Crewe.

An overcast March 19th 1983 finds a pair of 25's, led by 25185 sitting around at Newton Heath.
Photograph courtesy Tony Sayer
1983
Edinburgh took advantage of Crewe allocated 25185 on February 26th, after arriving on a parcels service it was then noted on local ecs duties.

September 19th found the Mountsorrel - Elstow Redland stone working used 25044 & 25185, a working now normally in the hands of pairs of Class 31's.

1984
Heavy snows on January 22nd in places to a depth of two feet blocked both the GSW & CR routes into Scotland, with drifts of fifteen feet being reported. Engineering work on the ECML was quickly postponed, although too late to prevent one ECML passenger train being diverted towards Carlisle, then having to retrace its steps after word of the snow blockages spread. The failure of the 23.40 Edinburgh/Glasgow - Bristol near Crawford was not helped by the rescuing locomotive becoming stuck in a sizeable snowdrift. The gale force winds did nothing to help matters, quickly undoing the arduous work of the snowploughs. The down 'Clansman' became stuck at Dalwhinnie, somehow an ex Glasgow service forced its way alongside taking all the passengers to Inverness. It was several days before the stock of the 'Clansman' was freed from the snow. In later snow clearing operations here 26044 suffered serious fire damage, leading to withdrawal. The most affected train was an overnight Inverness - Euston service that was initially diverted via Aberdeen, suffered a partial locomotive failure, reached Motherwell only to find the way south blocked. A circumnavigation of the Hamilton circle found the train headed for Kilmarnock and the GSW route to Carlisle, having taken fifteen hours to cross the border. The 23rd's 10.15 Euston - Glasgow used 25185 & 25212 between Carlisle & Newcastle, as nothing was available at Newcastle to replace the Type 2's the train was terminated here, with the ecs returning to Carlisle. Many services were cancelled, others running many hours late, to ease the problems all freights north of Carlisle were cancelled.

A working once familiar to the Class 25's was seeing a greater use of other classes, the 18.12 Manchester - St Pancras parcels, as far as Derby. Noted during August were 25185 (1st), 25316 (20th) & 25249 (22nd) as were a number of the fast disappearing Class 40's.

The end came for 25185 in November at Cricklewood being stopped with a traction motor fault, it soon reached Toton for storage. However the locomotive was chosen as the basis for a 'Heavy Maintenance' course utilising small teams to carry out the equivalent of a C exam plus repairs.

The second team to complete this session (featured in the photograph below) had charge of the locomotive from November 12th to December 7th 1984. The C exam was completed, additionally several pistons and liners were removed due to low compression, the piston rings were renewed. The traction motor fault that had condemned the locomotive was investigated, the number 4 motor interpole cables were found to be to earth, causing the locomotive to run on only two motors. Although diagnosed the team were not permitted to change the motor.

Following the mechanical review of the locomotive two of the team gave 25185 a good clean, repainting the yellow cabfronts and the red buffer beams. To confirm the operational status of the locomotive a test run was made to Westhouses, albeit on the two good traction motors. The first team had also made a test run, the locomotive carrying an unofficial name 'Realfright'.

After this treatment 25185 returned to its slumbers as Toton, but it was not to go the way of the majority, preservation was in the future for D7535/25185.

1986
The second Class 25 to be preserved, 25185 made its last BR journey on February 13/14th when it ran under its own power from Toton to the Dart Valley Railway at Paignton.

(Above) Three views of D7535 and its 'Heavy Maintenance' team, with views at Westhouses, from the cab on the test run (presumably somewhere between Pye Bridge & Bennerley) and of the team and locomotive at Toton. Team members were Steve Morris, Rigby Wason, Alistair Sinclair, Colin Morris , John Tyler & Mike Wright.

With thanks to Steve Morris for the information and photographs of 25185's post-withdrawal activities. It is believed that on its two test runs there were a number of lineside photographers who might have photographed this unusual working. Steve would be most interested in any views of these workings - Thanks.

Page added July 31st 2004

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