Pacer Class 142s to return to FGW West of England services
 

Just had a browse on The Railway Centre and found a bit of information below regarding FGW getting 142s.

http://www.therailwaycentre.com/UK%2...80807_FGW.html

12 less that are avaliable to ATW then! hurray! :)

[QUOTE=GBRf_66709;9597]Just had a browse on The Railway Centre and found a bit of information below regarding FGW getting 142s.QUOTE]

It's probably some of the 24 that Northern are replacing with 156s and 158s that will go down there which would be a bit ironic as some of the 142s used on the Northern franchisee were originally from that area until they were swapped with 150s.

As part of the move to re-introduce 142's to the West Country, 142001 and 142064 were scheduled to travel today from Newton Heath (Manchester) to Exeter.
I have been sorting through my slides and came across this shot of 142026 in "Great Western" livery at Manchester Victoria on 6th September 1988 shortly after it had been transferred FROM the West Country because it was unsuitable:(
Attachment 232

They might be for the Helston branch!

Submarine

If Wikipedia's correct then your lucky it's not 005, 007 or 065

"A number are in very poor condition including 142.007 has a damaged exterior after being hit by a tree in stormy weather, 142.005 suffers from leaking, while 142.065 has an excessively noisy engine."

The Helston Branch Railway Company seem more than happy with their Park Royal Class 103 now they have some track to run it on!

There seems to be a lot of objection to 142s being used in the South West due to wear on the wheels when they were used in Cornwall before. However, there are a lot of points to consider:
1. The wear was reportedly caused on Cornish tracks. How many FGW services don’t even go in to Cornwall?
2. FGW passengers caused a great fuss a few months ago with regards to train overcrowding and punctuality. Should they really complain at FGW getting three extra trains which could help with these problems?
3. Some commuters who use Northern Rail or Arriva Trains Wales services to get to work may have caught 142s every day for a long time. So if some FGW users have to do likewise they are not any worse off than a lot of other rail users.

Classes 141, 142 and 143 are just crap and all should be scrapped, Im not sure it is even worth preserving one of them. If that crash near Liverpool a few years ago had invloved passengers hen they would have been scrapped as the public outcry would be massive. But because the unit involved was empty the TOCs can get away with keep running them as they are cheap to run.:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

You forgot class 144s.

A few 141s have been preserved and some have even emigrated to Iran I think.

They blamed Automatic Train Control for the crash even though having Pacers and Intercitys on the same route is like having trains and trams on the same route, which is definetly not allowed.

Also the Pacer may not have been going the way it was meant to, it was at Winsford (on the Liverpool to Crewe line) when it was supposed to be travelling empty from Crewe to Manchester Piccadilly.

http://danger-ahead.railfan.net/repo...ord990623.html

Pacers are often used on the south wales main line from maesteg to cardiff and cardiff to swansea which also has an hourly service each way by FGW (london-swansea-london).

142's are alot better now than they were when they were first introduced as now they have interlocking doors and air brakes and all the nessarry saftey equiptment.

The ones due to go to FGW are mainly the ones that have not been fully refurbished in side 142 003 is one of them for which has been working around Liverpool this week today i saw it sitting all alone in Lime Street on Platform one obiosley spare and just waiting for a 150 or 156 to fail then it willgo out for a run.

The thing with 142's tis thet they have charicter and just need some TLC but what really needs to be done is the whole fleet at Northern to be updated as 150's and 156's are not Mutch younger than the 142's and if you look in fleet books you will see that 150's are about the same age as the 150's.

Also as it hapens the 142 in the above photo 142 026 is now actually in Northern Livery along with one of it's sisters 142 024 both i think ex Arriva Trains Northern.
"Save the Class 142"