Pacers: The End

Depends if you normally travel by train. I’ve only ever done one return journey on an HST.

 

It was early! Typos now amended.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-manchester-55110222

 

Can I hear champagne corks popping in Dewsbury? Or is @Victor and Mrs V celebrating by giving the Laphroaig and Tanqueray a hammering?

 

Proberly....and Lancashire Day too...a lot to cope with...

 

I liked 'em, I'm sorry to see them go..........

And if you believe that you'll believe owt. Good riddance to 'em.

 

first line was the alcohol talking, second must have been when he sobered up,
They served a purpose, as a short term fix, a stop gap, they would have been fine, but should have been replaced years ago, but as always, whilst the main routes get the investments, the secondary have to carry on, with what's available, and , as regards the branch lines, are these not always at the bottom of the pile. ?

 

An uncle of mine now sadly passed away lived in Holmfirth for most of his life once compared riding in a pacer as similar to him flying back to England from Gibraltar in 1946 in a DC3 aircraft

 

I wonder how many of those bellyaching about Pacers realise that were it not for this low-cost solution, they'd have lost their railway lines altogether?

 

Very true, for instance, the lines to Barnstable, and Exmouth must have been candidates for closure when the Western Region took over all lines west of Salisbury i should imagine any local branch, must have been under threat, if you think back to the Serpell report, i don't think many branch lines would have survived what was Beeching 2 as he only saw a vision for the main trunk routes, everything else, would have gone.

 

And to be frank, as discussed further up, we still have to decide what the true successors to the Pacers are. Cascading 150/3/6/8 is the short term solution but for the likes of the Devon lines, the Little North Western, Colne to Preston and the lightest trafficked three thousand miles of the route network, what happens in five years time? The vintage structure of the trains is not that great.

 

An interesting Twitter thread from Gareth Dennis suggesting that this was actually a myth, with link to an online talk (disclaimer, not yet watched) elaborating on the economics of the Pacers - https://twitter.com/garethdennis/status/1332615299837865986?s=21

 

I see they are doing driver experience courses www.afrps.co.uk. I think Victor should take one and then he will see how wrong he was..."My dear for Christmas I have decided to take you on a romantic vintage train dining experience"....

 

They did a job, kept lines running during a period of a lack of investment and, IMO, aren't as bad as they are made out to be. Some of it was grandstanding by local politicians which set a bandwagon in motion, which the media and assorted bellyachers jumped on.

 

No one seems to mention South Wales where Pacers are still a staple while we wait for our ‘new’
30 plus year old trains to enter service .
Have never found them as bad as Victor makes out but when the only alternative is a 150 I suppose we don’t expect luxury travel!
Don’t know what will happen if December 31st is their final reprieve as nine 769’s will not replace 30? Pacers.

 

If they've really all gone..........good. I'm still traumatised from yon 142, 5 abreast seating , Carlisle to Leeds (standing room only).
The jointed rail on The Bentham Line.
Downhill from Morley Tunnel to Dewsbury (scary).

Oh, and Mr Osprey.........this is Yorkshire, we don't do romantic anything.......it's just "brace thissen lass"

 

Indeed, however some of northerns allocations were baffling

The one always affecting me were the Leeds Morecambe services, nearly 2 hours on a train which was so noisy you couldn't hear a podcast on your ipod (often wondered where the sound in the cabin would sit with workplace sound restrictions), where the heating rarely worked properly (normally not working in winter and heaters running full pelt in summer) over jointed rail from settle juct which seemed designed to cause whiplash....

 

You must have done something wrong then...you got wed...

 

Yeah, 60+ years ago, IIRC copious amounts of Ramsdens Dark Mild played a big part in that.

 

I thought you had given that up.