Pacers: The End

90 mph with a Pacer body on it............the mind boggles. Get one of those bouncing about at 90 and nobody would be safe.

As for posts #'s 17/18/19/20..............................where's my red book, it needs updating

 

Not a mogul - a 2-4-2. This one, in fact:

Washington K88. NZR. by Bernard Spragg. NZ, on Flickr

(Not my photo)

http://www.whitebusfamily.co.nz/first_restoration.htm

There were a few others around awaiting restoration - I took some photos of bits of various class V 2-6-2 that were awaiting restoration having spent 80-odd years in the same river bank. Checking online looks like they were scrapped about four years ago.

Tom

 

Is it showing its top speed for pushing a Delorean on the smokebox door?

 

If Victor becomes PM it looks like the Tower of London for some of us.

 

A

And why is there a fruit machine on the boiler?

 

In which case it's a very pervasive urban myth (i.e. it's not just Wikipedia which says so!). A book in my possesion 'Minor Railways of England and Their Locomotives' points towards your version. Could you please cite your source?

I'm always prepared to be corrected and certainly don't want to perpetuate errors, but this story is one which I've heard many times for years. On the demise of 'Kingsley' there seems no confusion, but t'other two are most definitely mentioned as having been cargo on a captured German vessel when it went down off the N Cornwall coast, though I can't yet identify the wreck of the vessel mentioned. More digging is evidently required!

These locos weren't all that old when the BW&A closed and given other wartime acquisitions (often cast-offs which impoverished railways jumped at the chance to turn into income) sat around in governement depots, sometimes for years after the armistice, I'd certainly be interested in evidence that one was scrapped whilst WWI still raged.

Careless of me and OP has been corrected accordingly. Cheers Tom.

It's disappointing to learn remaining "hardcore" is no longer with us, but given the successful restoration of No.88, you have to suppose that the condition of what was found was so poor that no other course of action was viable. Not really so surprising after so long in a river bank I suppose.

None of which has a terrible lot to do with Pacers, does it?

 

was the article in Heritage Railway about the B,W-H&A locos incorrect? ISTR there were photos published from underwater. https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/new...rkshire-found-150ft-down-on-sea-bed-1-2405622

 

Hate. HATE. HATE, the Pacers.

The only feeling I'll have when they are finally returned back to their rightful bus depots, is why the British Public ever tolerated them for so long in the first place.

 

Personally i love them. But they shouldn't still be in public service. NRM needs one, the more that are saved, the better.

 

Why ?? they are appalling heaps of misery. Preserve on at the NRM for sure, but burn the rest of 'em.

Ride one on The Bentham line, or Carlisle to Leeds (5 across bus seats), then come and tell me "the more that are saved the better".

 

From the Railcar Association pages:

DISPOSALS
Class 141's 55503, 55510 and 55523 were all scrapped on site at the Weardale Railway in March. 55510 had never run in preservation and was a spares donor for 55503/23 which itself was also cut up, as repairs required to return them to service were to prove too
costly for their owners. The unit had been out of use for several years and now just 141108 and 141113 remain preserved, half of the original fleet saved.

 

Having endured them in crush loading conditions on my commute into Manchester for many years I had hoped Top Gear would either blow one up or run one off a cliff...

Dave

 

Use them quite regularly on my way to work. Ride quality is unique, try then on the curves off the tyne bridge. But still has more leg room and better views than any modern unit. I can actually sit in the seats without being crushed against the seat in front. I'd love to see them all saved just to annoy alot of people.
I'l set up the facebook group now for the Pacer preservation society...runs for cover at this point.

 

You’re too late ...

https://m.facebook.com/PeakPacerPreservationSociety/

Tom

 

Yes glad someone is doing it.

 

To be fair, that sounds rather like ATW as well!

 

I'll give you that, the ride quality certainly is...........Er...............UNIQUE.

 

Be it known .... If someone comes up with a simple, practical and affordable mod to improve Pacer riding in preservation, I will laugh .... a lot!

 

Park it in a bay platform and turn it into a diner?

 

Well the prototypes did ride quite well, but then CMEE put loads of heavy gear outside the wheelbase and totally spoilt the riding, think moment of inertia in automotive design.

Dave