Pacers: The End

It’s an easy mistale to male ...

Tom

 

Correct - The Dodgy Digit syndrome commonly found with Septuagenarians.

 

Also known as FFS

FAT FINGER SYNDROME
rather than anything else that might fit.

 

Being suggested on FB that the last TFW Pacer retired to the scrapyard today (142085), albeit one (142006) is being preserved.

 

Given the variety of liveries that class members have carried, it will be interesting to see how many of them will be restored on preserved examples; my preference would be to see the original GM Livery as applied to 142001 - 13 and the GWR livery applied to 142014 - 27 but that is the(new) owners' preferences.

 

I'm just hoping we don't see a wave of non authentic steam era liveries applied to them, which would really detract from their history in my mind. I'm keeping my fingers crossed they will appear in their various 80's and 90's liveries which if applied nicely will make for some attractive and colourful reminders of that era!

Sent from my moto g(8) power using Tapatalk

 

Agree with the last post. They are the only liveries they can correctly carry. GMPTE Brown and orange I quite liked on them, but didn't like on the 303s and 504s.

The final Northern one would be another good choice too

 

Bring up a long dormant topic. I see the group owning the 142 at Foxfield, 142055 have been asked to take it anywhere else. As I understand it, it's been vandalised while there. Is the first thats being moved on since preservation?

 

Should have cut out the intermediate purgatory phase and gone straight to the scrap man - would have saved a lot of time and money …

Tom

 

Possibly. Though there are some projects that have spent ages in purgatory, I'd thought should have gone for scrap, and have recovered well - 50026 being a key example.

 

I'd have thought there's a car park nearby that they'd stand a better chance at

 

Yes, but how many do you need … I can see heritage value in one, but realistically most that were “preserved” will meet their end sooner or later; it’s just a question of how long you delay the inevitable.

Tom

 

I can certainly think of a couple locally.

 

We're drifting to a wider discussion of what preservation is about. Some protection actually comes from there being a number of units and a number of owners, rather than all the eggs being in one basket. After all, back in the day, there was an idea that there should only be one preservation scheme, as there wouldn't be resources for more.

That's before we consider that a Pacer is fundamentally the late 20th century equivalent of a Birdcage brake - a bog standard vehicle built with no great thoughts of longevity, for use as a lowest cost vehicle across the network

 

I note that Tysesleyt scrapped theres a while ago

 

I think I said back earlier in the thread that we'll see a wealth of them scrapped in 5-10 years and that was back in 2020 so we're probably on track to see them be dismantled as they succumb. Wensleydale was trying to sell one of theirs not that long ago but didn't follow it closely.

 

I await the inevitable new build project coming forward using the Pacer as a basis for it.... That fame could support a new build Leader couldn't it?

 

How about this?