You Dirty Rat!

Our Class 25, together with one of our Class 50s, are the latest locomotives to be weathered by  Mikron Models in Taunton.

I will look at the 50 in a future posting but here is the Class 25 and, yet again, I would say that Alex has done a remarkable job in transforming the once pristine loco into something that looks like a real work-horse.

We also asked him to change the running number whilst he was at it so that it would be unique to us; therefore, instead of her being Nº 25245,  she is now Nº 25248.

Some of you might be wondering how the title of this posting fits in with the loco. Well, the Class 25s were nicknamed Rats by enthusiasts because, during their heyday in the 1970s, it was alleged that they could be seen virtually anywhere on the BR Network. This is hardly surprising since a total of 327 of these Sulzer Type 2s were built between 1961 and 1967. They were primarily designed for freight work, and this is what our loco will predominantly be used for, however, quite a few were fitted with steam heating boilers so that they could also haul passenger trains.

The last of the Class 25s were withdrawn in March 1987 with 20 of their number fortunately heading into preservation, although sadly not 25248! 

Never mind, at least it is still possible to see quite a few of these locos still RATtling along various Heritage Railways up and down the country!