Withdrawn Class 25 'Rat' 25177 (D7527) demonstrates re-railing at Stratford TMD Open Day in July 1983
<b>Sat. 9th July 1983 Stratford TMD Open Day - one of many excellent depot open days held in the 1980s - an exercise in Health &amp; Safety :)</b> Note the suited guy up on the loco!

This shot shows withdrawn Sulzer Type 2 'Rat' (Class 25) 25177, which was used on the day to demonstrate the techniques involved in re-railing a locomotive! The loco was awaiting its inevitable fate at Stratford.

<b>Locomotive History D7527</b> was new to Nottingham Division (D16) on January 30th 1965. Further transfers were:

October 1971 to London Division (D01).
May 1973 to Willesden.

<b>Renumbered as 25177 March 30th 1974.</b>

June 1975 to Cricklewood.
Withdrawn November 28th 1982.

25177 was the 146th Class 25 withdrawn, one of twelve retired during November 1982, including sisters 25179 &amp; 25180.

After withdrawal 25177 reached Stratford by December 1982 and would be used in rerailing exercises at the Stratford Open Day on July 9th 1983. It was moved to Temple Mills Yard for further rerailing exercises on March 26th 1984. It returned to Stratford then was taken again to Temple Mills on June 5th 1984 for breakdown tests, 25177 returned to Stratford the same day and then moved on to Reading, accompanying it were 08550 &amp; 40092 as the 9Z28 Stratford - Swindon, reaching Swindon Works by June 14th 1984. 25177 was broken up by the first week of May 1986. [Info courtesy of: <a href="https://www.derbysulzers.com/25177.html" rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.derbysulzers.com/25177.html</a>]

<b>The British Rail Class 25</b>, also known as the Sulzer Type 2, was a class of 327 diesel locomotives built between 1961 and 1967 for British Rail. They were numbered in two series, D5151–D5299 and D7500–D7677. In 1974, they were renumbered in the series 25001-25327. 

The first 25 locos became known as Class 25/0 and were built at BR Darlington Works. The Class 25/1 locomotives were built at Darlington and BR Derby Works. The Class 25/2 locomotives were built at Derby with some built at Darlington. The final batch of locomotives were designated Class 25/3 and built by Derby Works and Beyer, Peacock and Company of Manchester.

The Class 25s were primarily designed for freight work, but a significant number were fitted with boilers for heating passenger trains. Throughout the 1970s they could be found at work across the whole of the British Rail network although the Eastern and Southern Regions never had a long-term allocation. 

Though regular performers into the early 1980s on Crewe-Cardiff passenger trains, they are best known in that respect for their use on the summer Saturday trains to Aberystwyth, a task they relinquished in 1984. They were also often seen in action when the WCML wires were down, dragging trains, and rescuing failed locomotives, mainly on the LMR. The final Class 25 locomotive was withdrawn from operational service in March 1987. More info here: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_25" rel="noreferrer nofollow">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_25</a>

<b>Photos that were nearly lost to oblivion!</b>
The original slide was rescued from a box of 'duds' that I could never quite bring myself to throw away - now I am glad that I kept them ;)

Taken with a Zenith TTL SLR camera and standard lens. <b>Scanned from the original slide with minimal digital restoration</b>

You can see a random selection of my railway photos here on Flickriver: <a href="http://www.flickriver.com/photos/themightyhood/random/" rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.flickriver.com/photos/themightyhood/random/</a>
25177 d7527 7527 class25 diesel locomotive stratford shed depot rerailing scrap scrapline