Class 24 and 25 diesel locos

[Dawg]

Hi - more a historical question about the locos...

Class 24 diesels. Why were they withdrawn so early compared to the class 25's? I vaguely remember one surviving 24 in my book when I started spotting as a young boy in the early '80's, yet there were always lots of class 25's knocking around..


What happened?

 

[Ash Bridge]

Some of (possibly not all)the reasons could have been due to the fact that none of the 24s were ever fitted with dual braking, and they were also less powerful than the 25s, maybe the drivers environment came into it also, as the 25 cabs seemed a big improvement over the 24, certainly the later style did. 90mph top speed as opposed to 75mph could have perhaps been more useful at times, would have though that a 25 would be considered as a refined more versatile version of a 24 hence the reason BR retained them longer.

 

[Bevan Price]

There were surplus locos as freight traffic declined; Class 20 was more reliable, and although slightly less powerful than Class 24, they could undertake most of their freight work. Class 25 was a bit newer and more powerful than Class 24.

Other, smaller / less reliable classes (e.g. 21/22/29) had mostly gone. So, Class 24 was the next in line for withdrawal, despite being relatively young.

 

[table38]

David Clarke's book also reports a freak accident at Chester where a runaway ore train was diverted into the diesel depot to avoid the main station and collided with five Class 24s, four of which were withdrawn The fate of many other Type 2's is documented here: http://www.derbysulzers.com/bent25.html

Other than that, pretty much what has already been said; West Coast electrification and HSTs had created a glut of higher-powered diesels, so the axe fell next on the lower-powered and less versatile Class 24s.

 

[Jamesb1974]

Other than that, pretty much what has already been said; West Coast electrification and HSTs had created a glut of higher-powered diesels, so the axe fell next on the lower-powered and less versatile Class 24s.

I think the axe was already on its way down before the HSTs arrived. ('76 ish?)


Wikipedia says;

"Some Class 24s were withdrawn in 1973 with the closure of the Waverley route, which linked Carlisle and Edinburgh, but most of these were put into storage and subsequently re-entered traffic to fill gaps left by the movement of Class 25s to cover the withdrawal of Class 22s on the Western Region. Thus Class 24 withdrawals only started in earnest with completion of the Glasgow electrification in 1974, and re-allocation of Class 26 and Class 27 locos saw the Class 24s concentrated around various Lancashire depots and at Carlisle.

On 27 November 1976 there were just ten Class 24s still in operational service, all allocated to Crewe Diesel Depot (depot code CD). However, with the reinstatement of 24082 and 24073 this number climbed to 12 by February 1977".

 

[Juniper Driver]

I saw 24082 I think it was 1979 or 1981 (actually the year is a bit patchy now) @ Willesden going through with Mk1's..

 

[bigdelboy]

Just slightly off topic my understanding is that with the (scottish) class 26/27 cousins of the class 24/25 it was the class 26 that survived longer (1993) than the class 27 (1987). This was due to the higher reliability of the lower powered engine (at least according to wikipedia for class 27) .... certainly some engines would have been trashed to death on glasgow/edinburgh push pulls ....

 

[Jamesb1974]

Just slightly off topic my understanding is that with the (scottish) class 26/27 cousins of the class 24/25 it was the class 26 that survived longer (1993) than the class 27 (1987). This was due to the higher reliability of the lower powered engine (at least according to wikipedia for class 27) .... certainly some engines would have been trashed to death on glasgow/edinburgh push pulls ....

Didn't the 27's have a tendency to catch fire?

 

[Dawg]

Thanks for the answers. I must have seen the last 24 in my older brother's book as it was withdrawn in January 1980 - he was spotting in the late '70's..

 

[trac]

I read an article I think it was in Rail magazine where the Chief Mechanical Engineer weighed up whether to keep the Class 25's or 31's. He opted to keep the 31's as he decided there were some issues on the 25's (including something to do with the brake rigging) that would be more costly to put right if they kept the 25's.

 

[Jamesb1974]

I read an article I think it was in Rail magazine where the Chief Mechanical Engineer weighed up whether to keep the Class 25's or 31's. He opted to keep the 31's as he decided there were some issues on the 25's (including something to do with the brake rigging) that would be more costly to put right if they kept the 25's.

How ironic. A lot of the 'old hands' I know say that the 25 was a great engine. Unlike the 31 which was a pile of fume ridden, under powered junk.