pacer trains

[mr B]

nice front page headlines in the Northern Echo , looks lie they are here for another 30 years

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/author/profile/43975/

mr B

[52D]

Aye saw it myself yesterday the natives are restless lol.

[Blink Bonny]

Ay up!

They were 'orrid when they were new. They've only gotten worse!

[52H]

Hi all
Well at least they've got rid of the cable brakes and put better transmission on ,but at the end of the day they are still crap.

52H

[sandwhich]

Oh Dear this is getting messy. although it is a certainty that Great Western will be rid of there handful in a couple of years or so, the Cardiff Valleys will probably be hanging on to their fleet for longer because of the log jam caused by the argument between the Welsh Assembly and Westminster as to who will pay for the electrification of these routes. As regards Northern we all know the answer will be more electrification, but with costs of the overhead wiring now being questioned more extensions are likely to take longer to implement, so the answer is more new diesel units which is almost certainly a non runner or keep many of the existing units in service for many more years. With a General Election next year, make sure you buttonhole all of your prospective MPs with earache.

[mr B]

re thinking , wasn't there a lot of moan's and discomfort after the 101's had been around for 30 plus years ?

[Blink Bonny]

Ay up!

As a regular train traveller in West Yorks I can tell you that even the most knackered 101 imaginable was far preferable to an ex-works pacer. Yes, they bounced and vibrated BUT you got all this on a Pacer with added lateral lurching!

[Nortonboy]

Can anything really be worse than a sprinter for anyone over 5'10"? They were excrutiating. I call them toast racks due to their lack of legroom. I once had to endure a 6 hour journey from Redruth to Southampton that involved two of the creatures. And the ridiculous doors on the luggage compartment that open into the gangway. Try getting a bike out of there when there are scores of passengers getting in and out. I nearly waved goodbye to my luggage that was sitting, patiently waiting for me on the platform.

[52D]

With the 101s at least you got proper seats and a view that previously had been only seen by passengers in the LNER Observation cars, that is if the crew hadn't pulled the driving compartment blinds down.

[Nortonboy]

101's were great to travel on. Apart from those in the north east i have enjoyed journeys on the Calstock branch in the south west. A real time warp line that had narrow cuttings and jointed rails the ends of which met at an angle giving a real seat of the pants ride to match the view.

[melton]

A pacer is OK on welded track although having said that I came back from Carlisle to Leeds in a pacer before they improved the line (about 1998) and apart from the pitching over bad joints I thought it was OK. The guard washed the up cess side windows with a mop before we left Carlisle!

[1H was 2E]

It's obvious that not many recall dmu in the 1960's. By way of a bench-mark, the Met Camm units were considered amongst the most refined, with the Walsall 3-car sets being the first choice for branch line railtours where loco. haulage was difficult.
At the other end of the spectrum sat the Cravens units. Intended for branch line work, they seemed fine ambling from Northampton to Hitchin, for example, but once branch line closures took away this sort of work they were put on commuter services.
For those who can't remember, I'll try to give a description. The vibration at full engine revs in intermediate gears was almost unbelievable. The lower bar of each sliding window vibrated in and out with an amplitude of about 1" and a frequency that made it a blur. The luggage racks consisted of metal tubes through cast brackets, and, after vibration had enlarged the holes these added to the din. The backs of unoccupied seats pitched backwards and forwards. Universal Joints in the transmission seemed always to be on their last legs, as did the engine mounts. There were some pretty unpleasant accidents when the UJ or fluid flywheel became detached - an added factor in the outcome was that the propshaft, on some at least, passed through a tunnel through the fuel tank.
Many dmu (not just the Cravens) had an interesting heating system, which produced hot air that smelt strongly of burning rubber and oil fumes. The heating was soporific. I recollect boarding a unit after visiting Heaton shed on a cold winter's morning (I'd only been up a couple of hours) and crashing straight out. Afterwards, when I recovered, it seemed more like unconsciousness than sleep...

[melton]

Sometime in the mid 70’s BR replaced the compression type engine mounts with torsion type mountings – this occurred to DMU’s generally and stopped a lot of the worst vibration. The bogie under the 101’s (and many more types) was based on the trailing bogie of the 60 mph LMS Liverpool – Southport stock (1938) and would only give a satisfactory ride when the train was full and standing.
In my experience the best riding DMU’s were the three car cross country units (the trailer originally had a small buffet unit at one end.) I believe the excellent bogie was designed at Darlington. I well remember travelling from Leicester to Peterborough in one of these. The difference from the usual Met-Cam was apparent immediately – we rolled smoothly though the points at the north end of Leicester station, instead of the sickening lurch I was expecting!

[Mickey]

Whats the differents between a Pacer and a Sprinter?.

In my part of the world London i never seen either one of them?.

The old Cravens were alright you use to get a good view of the railway even if you was sitting anywhere in the leading or trailing unit, admittedly they use to 'rock & roll' a bit when bombing along the main line between Kings Cross & Hitchin and beyond as either a x4 or x6 car unit and they could stink a bit of diesel fumes sometimes but i liked them.

[2392]

Whats the differents between a Pacer and a Sprinter?.

In my part of the world London i never seen either one of them?.

The old Cravens were alright you use to get a good view of the railway even if you was sitting anywhere in the leading or trailing unit, admittedly they use to 'rock & roll' a bit when bombing along the main line between Kings Cross & Hitchin and beyond as either a x4 or x6 car unit and they could stink a bit of diesel fumes sometimes but i liked them.

Pacers are based on 4 wheeled chassis' en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacer_(train). Where as Sprinters are based on bogie fitted chassis' en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprinter_(train). These two wikipedia sites give you a general idea of the sort rubbish [especially the Pacers] inflicked on the railways in the mid eighties as replacements for the first generation DMUs.