Pacers: The End

A fair few do seem to be being snapped up!

 

Rushden seem to be getting a pair too.

 

Martin you should have experienced standing in them on the North Wales Coast in the late 80s,
there was no predicting which way the damn things would bounce next

 

Could be the final hurrah for the Pacers, with Northern getting involved.

FF to 27:20 for the details, should the board have a whip round for @Victor and his other half for a ticket????

 

Well Mrs V would make one in with a 2 car 142 on the jointed rail on The Bentham Line......................
Me ?? no thanks, I was traumatised long ago standing Carlisle to Leeds

 

In 1989 you could experience it for 7 days for a mere £20 to see steam on the coast and far less hassle than August Bank hol driving on the A55,
By coincidence the trip to Holyhead and back behind steam the same year was £20.

 

Preserving them? Or just delaying the inevitable when they are scrapped? I can see them slowly rotting away unloved on sidings the moment something goes wrong that can’t be fixed.

Tom

 

I suspect a mixture of both - and that preservation of two sets at Chasewater and Whitrope suggests an intelligent attitude to spare parts procurement. And I've reason to believe that those looking to purchase for the Swindon & Cricklade are absolutely focused on preservation.

But I also remember the mass preservation of class 205 and 207 DEMUs when they were finally displaced from the Uckfield and Ashford-Hastings lines. I didn't believe that more than a few would last, but I notice that very few have been allowed to rot, and most are important parts of their railways' fleets. I suspect the Pacers have more of a future than you give credit for.

 

Couple of units at EMR Kingsbury when I passed today.

 

A video that should please @Victor.

https://www.facebook.com/162638680551751/posts/1531064693709136/

 

Why ? That's not a Pacer but a Class 314 unit from Glasgow ! Similar to the Class 507/508 both in age and style AND which has given Merseyrail a 94% Right Time service hence Merseyrail is the TOP TOC for service reliability.

 

This is, with respect, something of an old chestnut which seems to constantly come up but yet for which there is no evidence. When the Weardale Railway ran its community service for 18 months it was all Class 141 operated, with the daily diagram being about 160 miles (at 25mph heritage speeds) . The track is mainly jointed bullhead but it varies from short stretches of flat-bottom CWR to a few lengths of 'liberty rail'. There were no issues with excessive wear or indeed any track damage. Likewise at the Midland Railway which has operated a 141 continuously for a number of years there have again been no issues with the track. The axle loading of a Pacer is only around 14 tons ( a Class 31 is 18 tons and most steam heritage lines allow steamers of 19-22 tons) so there is no reason for it to cause track damage.
So I must respectfully disagree with 'Ploughman' with my difference of opinion being based purely on the practical operation of Pacers in the conditions that are being proposed for heritage, and the accumulated experience collected over a number of years.

 

Whoops. My mistake.
Couldn’t read the number on my mobile phone screen.
Looked like a Pacer, but what do I know. Don’t get many where I live!
The driver of the grab should take a visit to a local amusement arcade and practice on one of those grab a cuddly toy machines.

 

I just know what I have seen on the National Network on track renewals over 20 years.
There may be an added cause with speed being greater than on Heritage lines.

 

Erm...not quite @Victor

https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/pacer-trains-finally-being-put-17617307

 

" When the carriage arrives it will be stripped inside but fitted with eelctricity"

Is this a new form of green energy the Yorkshire folk are trying out ?

 

Of course in preservation they wont be allowed to exceed 25 mph which arguably they should never have been allowed to do in the first place.