The grills on Class 25 diesels

[Ken Shabby]

I'm currently attempting some minor detailing of this old Hornby Class 25. While searching images of Class 25 and 24 locos online, I noticed that on many locos the grill directly behind the cab has a metal plate fitted over it. Does anyone know what the reason is for this ?, and If an etched part is available ?.

Many thanks, Ken

[stuartp]

It was for frost protection on some of the ScR locos, possibly others. Not aware of an etched part but it's easy enough to do by cutting some slots in a bit of 10th plasticard.

[SRman]

It was for frost protection on some of the ScR locos, possibly others. Not aware of an etched part but it's easy enough to do by cutting some slots in a bit of 10th plasticard.

Not all of them had slots in, making it even easier, depending on the individual loco selected for the model.

Best advice: work from photos if at all possible.

[Mountain]

I was trying to find out. There is mention of the air intake being moved on later examples as where the intake was was prone to picking up leaf and other debris into the air filter.
Also, some early examples had steam heating boilers...
And another difference that I could find was that when the class was origionally built as what we now call the class 24, they were found that they could do with more power, so an intercooler system was installed which gave them a power increase and this additional power increase then gave birth to what we now know to be the class 25.

[stuartp]

From derbysulzers.com:

"Post-production changes occurred during the life of the locomotives, the most significant being that over time the boiler room grilles were covered by a solid blanking plate. This was an almost universal modification to both boilered and non-boilered locomotives.

A regional modification of the solid blanking plate occurred to those Class 24s working over the Highland line and Far North lines. The Inverness allocated Class 24s frequently encountered climate conditions that caused freezing conditions within the boiler compartment. To reduce the entry of cold air the standard solid blanking plate was initially fitted over the grilles. However for some of the locomotives this was later modified with the insertion of four or five slats to permit some air circulation."

[Ken Shabby]

Thanks to everyone who replied , I have been searching for images of 25s in BR blue and there does seem to be a fair few detail differences.
I decided to attempt making my own frost grills. I used plastic salvaged from the lid of a margarine tub. Annoyingly they look better in real life than they do in the photo , and there is still a little tidying up to do.

Ken

[Ken Shabby]

Tinkering with the 25 got me thinking, I recently bought some brass head code discs off eBay to try and replace a couple of missing discs off the front of my Bachmann 24. I decided that I'd try and convert another Hornby Class 25 into a 24. I could of bought a blue Bachmann 24, but this seemed like it would be more rewarding. A loco was purchased for £22 , and this is the progress so far.

The tanks have been cut away and I've have made my own (not fitted to this side yet) out of Lego and very thin card. So far the hardest part has been the doors which aren't recessed on a 24 like they are on a 25. After trying making my own, I used the doors of a Hornby 4 wheel coach , I reversed them and filed them down a little. The metalwork that covers the solebar under the cab is made of scraps of plastic from the sides of a condemned Airfix mineral wagon. There's still lots to do, but I feel I'm over the worst now that the doors are done.

Ken

[SRman]

Tinkering with the 25 got me thinking, I recently bought some brass head code discs off eBay to try and replace a couple of missing discs off the front of my Bachmann 24. I decided that I'd try and convert another Hornby Class 25 into a 24. I could of bought a blue Bachmann 24, but this seemed like it would be more rewarding. A loco was purchased for £22 , and this is the progress so far.

25to24.jpg

The tanks have been cut away and I've have made my own (not fitted to this side yet) out of Lego and very thin card. So far the hardest part has been the doors which aren't recessed on a 24 like they are on a 25. After trying making my own, I used the doors of a Hornby 4 wheel coach , I reversed them and filed them down a little. The metalwork that covers the solebar under the cab is made of scraps of plastic from the sides of a condemned Airfix mineral wagon. There's still lots to do, but I feel I'm over the worst now that the doors are done.

Ken

Looking good, so far, Ken. You seem to have captured the cab roof shape very well, and definitely far better than I did on mine.

When I converted a Hornby 25 to a 24 many years ago, I added a bit of filler in the lower edges of the cab windscreens, which are shallower in classes 24/0, 24/1 and 25/0 than in all the rest of the 25s. The handrails below the windscreens also need to move up around a millimetre or so. I also added filler on the cab window front edges and rounded the corner pillars a bit. The fishbelly shape at the bottom of the cab front is a little more difficult to deal with (I didn't!!), but even without it, the loco will be entirely recognisable as a 24.

[Jim S-W]

I drew up some class 24 and 25 bits for brassmasters

See http://www.brassmasters.co.uk/class_24-25_etch.htm

[Jim S-W]

Bachmann/Hornby hybrid to produce a class 25/0

And below finished off

[Ken Shabby]

That looks really smart Jim.

This is how far I've got so far.
24progress.jpg

As you can see a close up photo shows there;s much tidying up to do.
I'm now considering lowering it on it's bogies. I've successfully done this to a Hornby 37 and a 80's era Hymek, but I think because of the way the 24/25 sits on it's bogies , It may be trickier.,
The Head code discs came on thin strips of brass , and I' may use these for the 24's long cab hand rails.

Ken

[Mountain]

Not wanting to de-rail the thread but if any of you guys are interested I have this going spare.

It is made out of metal which looks to be white metal and it is designed to fit on a Hornby class 25 chassis.

[Ken Shabby]

I managed to fit some handrails. I never fitted my green Bachmann 24 with it's handrails, I have them stored away in a tin somewhere.
Because of this I didn't realise just how prominent the handrails on a Class 24 are . After trying various things , I came up with the idea of using very thin white plastic which came with the old Coopercraft station running in board set. This has a very delicate white plastic oblong, which you are supposed to use as the boarder on your newly constructed sign. There was just enough for a set of handrails , plus a spare for when one falls off.
The loco body is one of the old coloured plastic ones, so the handrails were just glued in place with liquid poly glue.

Ken