No feature on the class 25s could miss out Nuneaton. An important junction on the Trent Valley mainline it once paid host to marshalling yards and a loco depot. By the mid 1980s it still retained a train crew depot and holding sidings and the, albeit truncated, yards still featured heavily in the granite traffic from local quarries, much going for railway ballast use. One of those, Croft Quarry is on the Nueaton-Leicester line and still sends out rail traffic today. On 12th February 1986 25032 pauses at Nuneaton Trent Valley while working the 7K03 1030 Croft quarry-Crewe Gresty Lane loaded working.

Living by the line in Kenilworth gives the opportunity to dash up to the old Kenilworth Junction if anything interesting goes into the loop heading north, or it did as this shot is now impossible with so much tree growth... On Sunday 5th October 1986 25034 was looped with the 8L02 1100 Leamington Yard-Bescot with recovered rail.

25034 runs past the forlorn site of Oswestry Station on 23rd June 1986 with the 7J02, 1028 Bescot Up Yd-Blodwell Quarry ballast empties. Hard to believe this was once the headquarters of the Cambrian Railway! Most of the west Midlands area ballast came from East Midland quarries such as Nuneaton and Croft so the long trek to Blodwell was unusual to say the least. This was of course a regular Bescot Class 25 diagram until they were displaced by 31s.

As well as weekend ballasts, 25s were booked for many local weekday enginers trips. One such was Target 90, a Bescot DCE Ballast trip, which on 9th August 1986 was tasked with taking the "drain train" as the 8T90 1130 Washwood Heath-Nuneaton with 25034 the allocated power, seen here approaching Whitacre Junction.

The Coventry to Nuneaton line was always primarily a freight artery serving local industry, particularly a string of local collieries. By the '80s though oil was a major traffic and remains so to the Murco sidings at Bedworth. A flow that was lost in 1986 was to the Charringtons terminal at Hawkesbury Lane. This was booked to run MSX and in it's later days was worked from Ripple Lane to Willesden by a Stratford 47 (SF47 diagram), forward to Coventry Goods by a Class 81/85 (AC200) then tripped to Hawkesbury by a Crewe Class 25 (CD304). The return empties used a similar method, CD304 to Coventry, AC200 to Willesden and SF65 to Ripple Lane. Here 25035 is seen on a wintery 12th February 1986 with the late running 6M43 0405 Ripple Lane-Charrington Sdgs on the climb past Longford - oh for a sound clip!

The BOC plant at Ditton supplied oxygen to a number of locations around the country including the Austin-Rover complex at Morris Cowley. These ran as specials in MAP timings and here 25037 is seen with the return 6Z53 1427 Didcot-Ditton empties at Berkswell on 7th August 1986.

The short branch from Winsford Junction to Over & Wharton saw a short resurgence in the mid-80s with block trains of road salt to locations in Scotland as well as to Reading. After an illicit cab ride down the branch on 11th June 1986, we manged to photograph 25037 & 25034 berthing the 7Z49 empties from Mossend, albeit in appalling light.

Weekend ballast programmes were another likely place to find a 25s out on a Sunday. On Sunday 11th January 1986 25057 had charge of the Stafford OHLM train at Colton north of Rugeley, having arrived as 6L83 2155 from Stafford Salop Sdgs and was due off site back to Stafford at 1500.

One famous 25 duty right up until the end was the weekly Shell oil train from Stanlow. Here 25057 runs into Machynlleth station on 4th March, 1987 with the return empties, the Wednesday's only 7F49 1528 Aberystwyth-Stanlow.

The last chance to photograph 25057 was on 13th March 1987, just two days before withdrawal at Crewe. Having done 25912 on Target 91 ant Trawsfynned, we headed to Llandudno Junction in time to get 25057 arriving with the 7T92 1150 trip from Holyhead. It later worked forward with the 7F10 1530 Speedlink to Walton Old Junction.

Another of the originating points for railway ballast in the Nueaton area was at Hartshill. Here granite ballast was loaded in sidings off the WCML north of Nuneaton. Some traffic was tripped to Nuneaton TV but there were also up to three booked trains a day to Guide Bridge, Bletchley or Willesden. A visit on a rather chilly 12th February 1986 saw 25058 waiting while the 1624 departure to Guide Bridge, running as 7L42, was loaded.

Caldon Low quarry in Staffordshire was at the end of a rambling branch line from Leekbrook Junc and thence Stoke-on-Trent. Due to the gradients trains were worked in two portions from Leekbrook and here 25059 arrives with the first, 7K06, the 0907 from Longport Pinnox Sdgs, on 24th November, 1986.