British Rail Class 109 (Wickham) DMUs in Trinidad

I remember seeing an article about these vehicles in RAIL some years back - grounded bodies used as cafes!

Does anyone have any pictures or films of these vehicles in Trinidad?

I would be very interested in these or any other information concerning their export, use and current state.

Thanks

Jonathan

 

That may well be a Swindon DMU but they're clearly not the same as a class 120, just try counting the windows.

 

Nope! Doors in the wrong place etc.

 

They are 1956 built Class 126's - which have a different door configuration to the 1959 built power cars that can be seen at Bo'ness. One of the differences between the 56 and 59 builds was moving the guards van (and double doors) from the cab end of the vehicle to the rear end.

A single 1956 example survives in the UK (a centre buffet car) at Bo'ness along with the restored 1959 3-car set.

There has recently been much discussion about the Liberia power cars elswhere (RM Web Forum I think) - as it was discovered in 2009 that several (at least 3?) still existed albeit in an extremely stripped state. Previously due to disruptions such as civil war etc no-one had any idea if they were still there or cut up years ago!

The mine that they are a part of however has recently changed hands so the future of these vehicles does not look bright as it was speculated that the new owners would be having a site clear up.

 

NOT A CLASS 126 !!!! - this is an example of the original Edinburgh - Glasgow Inter City units ( 79xxx series ) which enthusiasts wrongly identify as Class 126 units. The ScR issued an official disclaimer many years ago pointing out that under TOPS all 79xxx series units remained unclassified as they were expected to have been withdrawn from service once the TOPS system was introduced but many enthusiasts either are not aware of / simply ignore this official notice thus making the task of railway historians unnecessarily difficult.

Some of the 79xxx series were sold to Liberia and fuller details can be found on the Railcar site at www.railcar.co.uk

 

It would seem I was amongst those enthusiasts in the wrong

Thanks for the correction - you learn something new every day!

 

I'm sorry to appear strident over this class but I was living in Edinburgh at the time the units were introduced and watched the conversion of Leith Central to the new diesel depot during 1955 / 56. This was my first introduction to diesel traction hence my continuing interest in both diesel and DMU history and my concern that history is recorded accurately. The recent revelation in Railway Magazine that the "Steam Disposal" books contains duff info makes it doubly important that history is accurately recorded - especially when so few of us continued noting the histories when confronted by the growing hordes of die-hard steam enthusiasts to whom we were the unforgiven enemy !

Or - as historians are now realising - the 1960s have much to answer for.

 

A cracking website with some info on the LAMCO system where 5 sets of '126s' and a few 08s turned up...

http://www.derbysulzers.com/liberia.html

To quote from the site

 

http://www.derbysulzers.com/lamco101.jpg

Check out the 08 veranda - cab!

 

Here are two pics of a 109 cut in two and with the cab ends only surviving being used as a house in Trinidad. I found them whilst doing a long term clear out of my in box in e mail from Wickham of Ware io group.