Railbus set 141 009 at Leeds. 16/06/84.
Personally I think the arrival of the railbus concept on the BR network was like a return to the dark ages. The late 1970's were full of innovation and promise with APT and HST then the 1980's dawned and the railways were cast back to cash saving and a make do and mend mentality. The Government of the day saw rail spending as subsidy, road building was the new future for transport with Motorway building stepped up. The Serpell report published in 1982 was the icing on the cake for the road lobby as it foretold rail Armageddon.
With the first generation DMU fleet reaching the end of its life BR needed new trains for regional and branch line working but the money just wasn't there so the unlikely marriage of a Leyland National bus body with an express freight wagon underframe was the end result...... Welcome to the new dawn of cheap and cheerful trains ! Sadly a legacy that lasts to this day.
The new units were unloved from day one as WYPTE roundly criticized them as cheap and nasty with dreadful ride characteristics and were deemed to be worse from a passenger perspective than the older trains they were intended to replace. Poor reliability just made the situation worse culminating in units being taken out of service in 1987 barely three years old with serious mechanical failure. As a remedy in 1988-89 the entire class were re-engineered by Andrew-Barclay's in Kilmarnock. They were fitted with Cummins engines and Voith transmission. The refurbishment bought another 6-8 years service but by 1996 most were out of use. Only 2 of the 20 sets were scrapped in the UK and the bulk of them (13 sets) were exported to Iran.
Just two months old West Yorkshire PTE liveried DMU set 141 009 (55510+55530) stands at Leeds having arrived with the 12.54 from Bradford Interchange.
Railbus set 141 009 at Leeds. 16/06/84.
Personally I think the arrival of the railbus concept on the BR network was like a return to the dark ages. The late 1970's were full of innovation and promise with APT and HST then the 1980's dawned and the railways were cast back to cash saving and a make do and mend mentality. The Government of the day saw rail spending as subsidy, road building was the new future for transport with Motorway building stepped up. The Serpell report published in 1982 was the icing on the cake for the road lobby as it foretold rail Armageddon.
With the first generation DMU fleet reaching the end of its life BR needed new trains for regional and branch line working but the money just wasn't there so the unlikely marriage of a Leyland National bus body with an express freight wagon underframe was the end result...... Welcome to the new dawn of cheap and cheerful trains ! Sadly a legacy that lasts to this day.
The new units were unloved from day one as WYPTE roundly criticized them as cheap and nasty with dreadful ride characteristics and were deemed to be worse from a passenger perspective than the older trains they were intended to replace. Poor reliability just made the situation worse culminating in units being taken out of service in 1987 barely three years old with serious mechanical failure. As a remedy in 1988-89 the entire class were re-engineered by Andrew-Barclay's in Kilmarnock. They were fitted with Cummins engines and Voith transmission. The refurbishment bought another 6-8 years service but by 1996 most were out of use. Only 2 of the 20 sets were scrapped in the UK and the bulk of them (13 sets) were exported to Iran.
Just two months old West Yorkshire PTE liveried DMU set 141 009 (55510+55530) stands at Leeds having arrived with the 12.54 from Bradford Interchange.