LMS Route: Evesham to Birmingham

Kings Norton Locomotives: mrkn1183

British Railways Sulzer Type 2 diesel locomotive D5236 pilots Sulzer Type 4 D34 on a West Country bound express service circa 1964. On the Camp Hill line on the right a class 08 shunter stands having worked up from the sidings at Lifford. The British Railways Sulzer Type 2 diesel locomotives were later categorised as Class 25 locomotives and were nicknamed Rats, as it was alleged they could be seen everywhere in Britain, and hence were "as common as rats". In total, 327 locomotives of this type were built between 1961 and 1967. They 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 an 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. The final Class 25 locomotive was withdrawn from service in March 1987.

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