Inter City 125 program on channel 5

Except... the other week, I saw someone with a video camera recording a trip on the Fletton Branch in the Swedish Railcar on the Nene Valley Railway. Upon his t-shirt was... "I <heart> Pacers", with a picture of one. I couldn't work out if he was being humorous or not!

 

No accounting for tastes, I suppose.

 

How long have the 313s worked out of Kings Cross? Not front line I know, but...

 

It was probably @Victor ....

 

He's got a lot younger if it was; working on the principle of "Methinks the lady doth protest too much"?

 

Smiley implied?
It was a good way to get a low axle loading with the diesel engines available at the time, and it gave us a taxonomy conundrum: is it a loco-hauled train or a multiple-unit?

 

As introduced they were classed as a DEMU, getting a class allocation in the 200 range where DEMUs lived. I certainly have photos of newly-introduced units bearing numbers on the front of 254 0xx. But when it became obvious they couldn't keep the sets together, they lost those numbers and were treated as Class 43 locomotives hauling Mk. 3 stock around and that happened remarkably quickly - within a year or two.

I also have memories that the prototype HST (252 001) locomotives re-used the Class 41 allocation for a while.

Dig out an Ian Allan Combined Volume from say, 1979/80 to see what I mean.

 

When the HSTs were first introduced, they were classified and numbered as DMUs (class 253?).
Some of the early designs of DMU worked out of Padd for over 40 years.

 

253 on the Western, 254 on the ECML.

Simon

 

Yep - pretty sure the old Combined Volumes showed e.g. set 254 001 as having power cars E43056/E43057. This all went well until the new batch of power cars turned up in c. 1980!

 

I remember seeing a HST with 253 xxx on the front racing past followed minutes later by another with the same set number on the front.............

 

Any machine that can lose braking performance, as somebody flushes the toilet, is a triumph of design and reliability.

Bet that little known fact is not broadcast!!!

 

How?!

 

For info, 43002 "Sir Kenneth Grange" with the original livery currently displays 253001 on the front and for some reason W43002 on the sides (Reading Station April 2017)

 

Because that is absolutely correct for the period. They were not classed as locomotives, but power cars (W43002) within a multiple unit set (253 001) and thus also had regional identifiers - W43002 being a case in point. The partnering power car for set 253 001 would have been W43003 at the time. As I have said before: look in a Combined Volume for about 1978 to see what I mean.

Although originally, the blue bit on the power car was intended to be black.

 

On Early 143's and Pacers, when the compressed air toilets were used, it created a lack of air to sufficiently apply the brakes.

Was a well known Friday and Saturday Night to flush the toilet, just prior to a station stop, and watch the units pass slowly through the station, with no air for brake force....

 

no skid marks on the rails then?

Jon

 

I'll get your coat for you...