Inside the Infamous Pacer: The Bus on Rails Commuters Loved to Hate | Curator with a Camera
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 มิ.ย. 2024
- Since we started Curator with a Camera Anthony, Bob and Thomas have worked their way through some of the most impactful vehicles in our collection including Mallard, Rocket and Flying Scotsman.
Today we're rolling out the big guns and invited Andrew McLean-Head Curator and Assistant Director of the National Railway Museum-to Locomotion in Shildon to film... The Pacer.
[Tumbleweed.]
Oh.
But wait! Could it be that the rudimentary and much-derided Pacer has an interesting story behind it? It does, after all, feature a lot of bus components in its construction-including its body and engines. And just LOOK AT IT.
Despite its reputation for discomfort and schreeching its way around the UK's rail network far beyond its life expectancy, the truth is that the now-retired Pacer enabled millions of people to get not just from A to B but C, D and E, too. If anyone can do its story justice, it's Andrew McLean.
Enjoy!
This gorgeous engineering masterpiece was filmed at Locomotion in Shildon. Find out all about Locomotion here:
www.locomotion.org.uk
For the National Railway Museum, head here:
www.railwaymuseum.org.uk
This episode features a Leyland National 2 bus, an integral part of the Pacer story. Generously provided by the Northern National Restoration Group. Check them out here:
www.nnrg.co.uk/
Archive footage of the Pacer in action kindly supplied by David Othen: / @david-othen
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:50 Origins of the Pacer
02:57 Windscreen and cab
04:52 Newton Heath Depot and the birth of Manchester United
05:25 The squealing 'Nodding Donkey'
06:31 Fuel and engine
06:56 Body and livery
08:20 How to get inside
09:11 Doors, luggage and windows
10:42 Seating arrangements
11:18 A British Rail toilet
12:36 Original signage
13:35 Inside the Class 142 cab
17:23 Destination panel and a fun fact about Agatha Christie
18:24 The Pacer's legacy
19:19 Like and subscribe!
#railways #trains #museum - ยานยนต์และพาหนะ
A truly minging train that despite its myriad of faults should definitely be part of the national collection, Because there has never been a modern train that has delivered such an abominable passager experience
To paraphrase something James May once said about the Morris Marina, "You need to preserve _one,_ as a warning from history."
@@derektaylor2941even though they served their purpose well, it doesn’t negate the fact that they were only meant to be a cheap stopgap. Consequently, from a passenger perspective they sucked.
@@derektaylor2941That's the reason oft given, but in the end, with the cost of the mods the Pacers underwent early in their lives it ended up costing more per unit than just building a Sprinter.
And they were still a godawful thing to ride on. Especially an hour and a half each way per day on the Cumbrian Coast.
Those seats do look super comfortable
imagine these on the unelectrified Gospel Oak-Barking line in London that would be a sight to see
"Nothing is more permanent than a temporary solution" - old Russian proverb. I can't believe I was still commuting on these things until just a couple of years ago - the livery is certainly very familiar. The fact they stuck around for so long (apparently the only reason they finally got rid of them was because of new accessibility legislation) tells us a lot about the state of Britains' railways, especially in the North, where these were seen as 'good enough' decades after they should've been withdrawn and replaced with better rolling stock.
"Nichts hält länger als ein Provisorium" We got the same in German I think that's an international thing :D
The pacers are really to thank for a lot of smaller lines not being closed and later on even having their service extended. They came in a time when "closing lines for profitability" was awfully popular until regrets set in years or decades later.
I recently rode the "German equivalent" to the Pacer, the Ferkeltaxe, and honestly as a railway enthusiast I absolutely loved the 'direct' experience of a bumpy, squealing ride.
It was government subsidies that kept lines open, not the 1.3:% differences, even if it was real.
Living in a semi rural village on the outskirts of Sheffield the use of these trains has been an integral part of my life for business and pleasure. I met my wife on one, I used them to commute to work on them when I got my first job straight out of school, used them to travel to see my Football team every other week August to April season after season, nights out, cinema and shopping trips, me and my mates used to go to Meadowhall on them back in the mid 90’s when we were teenagers so were a kind of symbol of our independence. As a kid our house was about half a mile from the local station and I used to be able to hear them pulling in and out of the station in the distance, quite reassuring actually.
Had to get on these from Bamford to Manchester regularly- freezing and soaked regularly
I think that the pacer was a vital part of our railway history. They moved literally millions of people. They took people to their job interviews, their first date with their now partner, took people on trips on some lines that would’ve been closed otherwise. It’s important for the Railway museum to save trains like this as well as the major express locos. They all tell our railways history. It’s no wonder many heritage railways have bought pacers as they’re cheap to run and simple to repair.
You could also argue it best represents a historical moment of British railway history; one of class divide, and a government too stingy to even afford bare minimum rolling stock despite the massive, destructive and short-sighted cutbacks to the railway in the time between Beeching's Axe and the introduction of the Pacer. A grimy, uncomfortable and austere vehicle for a perfidious, dishonourable and cruel act against our railways... what could be more fitting?
@@caramelldansen2204 yes.
@@caramelldansen2204 You could also look at it from this point of view.
British Rail in the 1940s, was revenged by world war 2, they're grouping and even pre-grouping stock were showing their age, battered by world war 2, by the 1950s America and Europe were getting ahead with dieselisation while Britain was still using coal.
British Rail was tasked with practically revolutionising a failing industry into one that could make a profit.
Many lines were either duplicated or didn't turn a profit.
Little did British Rail know that many of these little used lines fed into the mainlines contributing to their overall volume.
In order to catch up with the rest of the world, the UK had to modernise with more efficient diesels that had more availability.
In the 1950s, the early diesel traction wasn't too good, the only reliable diesels there were were LMS ones built by English Electric, notable examples were the class 20 and 37.
The sudden change from steam to diesel put many, MANY manufacturers out of business as they couldn't transition that quickly and their product simply couldn't sell anymore.
British Rail was marred with pressure from both the public and the government who wanted things done quickly and in such a rush that many prototypes were failures, many of which got sold off to other places which we ended up buying back in the future.
Throughout BR's life, it was marred with controversy along with one mistake after another while simultaneously failing to actually achieve its goal.
British Rail was formed from false promises from the government to create a cleaner, more modern, cheaper railway from it being united, it was then disbanded from false promises of government to privatize the railway which lead to Railtrack, which lead to one of the most dangerous conditions the railway has arguably ever been in.
This trend of government intervention of the railways doesn't stop here but it has been ever present in the railways, the 1923 grouping act formed the big 4, 3 companies lost their core identity except for the Great Western.
I would think that beaching is less the cause, but instead, more of a symptom of a bigger issue at play here of government intervention. I think this issue of intervention goes well before the invention of railways.
Am I wrong here?
They took me to two job interviews, and I was so discombobulated and feeling sick 🤢 from the unconscionably awful ride that I didn't get either of those jobs ...
@@Ben31337l I think we should compare to something like Nederlandse Spoorwegen. They were (still are) a state railway, and they've had far less problems than BR did. They had the sense to skip diesel for the most part and go straight to electric. To this day their trains have massive seating capacity, run very frequently and very reliably, and are extremely cheap.
State intervention doesn't seem to be the issue.
I can't help but find it extremely fitting that even retiring the Pacers from service didn't stop them, since heritage railways up and down the country own loads of them, plus there's even more on static displays and being used in new ways. No matter how many changes happen, it seems the Pacers literally _will not die_ - in my opinion, that makes them even more endearing :)
Endearing? Hmm I don't think so
Agreed. About as endearing as the ill fated Ford Edsel of the 1950s in the US. The big problem was Pacers were awful, but they still kept making them, as they had a captive audience of commuters who had to travel to work in them, not much of a choice. Third Class comfort for First Class rail fares. Truly awful. I wonder how many 30 odd year old cars you see in rush hour regularly commuting into city centres, that was the case with the equivalent Pacer trains. Cheap and nasty would be a polite description of them. At least in Greater Manchester, the Metrolink trams don't have fares anywhere near as dear as most comparable rail fares for similar journeys.
And how they had not emptied teh fuel even though it will never run again (IF it is on the BR network)
@@paultaylor7082 But without them the rail network would be in an more sorry state than it is today, With low capacity lines not getting cheap easy trains it would have likely caused a Beeching V2 destroying what was already a crippled network.
Admitedly they never should have lasted as long as they did but they kept the country moving until the govenment sorted themselves out and actually started investing in the railways
@@paultaylor7082, by the way, one of the sub models of the Edsel was called the Pacer. It was the cheapest version of the line.
Ah yes the dreaded bus on wheels... The thing that prooved that Temporary in britain can mean up to 40 years.
the front end of a 142 is a very familiar sight... even now it causes a sinking feeling in my stomach of knowing that the next 1 and a half hours are going to be loud, uncomfortable, smelly, and probably become 2 hours once it had done it's usual thing of making a lot of noise and vibrating like mad, but not actually accelerating.
@@derektaylor2941 Exactly. Using one of these to get from Manchester to Hyde wasn't so bad, but too many times one of these things conveyed me on the Leeds-Lancaster line. Absolutely godawful experiences. They should never have been put on a long haul route like that.
Quite a bit like most British made vehicles of the time. 😂
@@derektaylor2941thank you for explaining it. I took a few journeys on a pacer around Manchester and Sheffield, but wondered why I kept seeing such negative comments about it. Turns out I was experiencing it as planned for short journeys on low speed lines where I thought it was acceptable.
@@russellpengilley5924 yeah that was the issue, for short commuter hops into a city they'd be acceptable, but they were regularly being used by Northern etc almost as regional intercity trains, a role they were totally unsuited to. especially if you were doing these journeys on a daily basis, the minor annoyances quickly piled up into hatred of the sets. Also, imagine you're suffering on one of these trains and every single day you get passed by far, far nicer trains where you can see the passengers enjoying luxuries like comfy seats, tables, and actual proper bogies :P it's an infuriating sight
I like to think we've preserved this as a "dear god NEVER do this again!"
Same idea should also have sent one to the museum of failure.
Brilliant, as a lifelong Pacer fan and a northerner who remembers riding on this exact unit, it's so fantastic to see it in it's deserved place in the national collection. What a brilliant vehicle.
Me too I rember the 141 lol I’m from West Yorkshire fetherston so the 141 pacer was used as a test train fir the Leeds to knottingley line
Was it your Everton Awayday boys sticker ?
Travel in the valleys not the same now these tough rough mean machines have sadly departed they gave many years of great service in the valleys and the north west
They also used to run on the line to Blackpool & i remember them well. By strange coincidence they were replaced with the former Thameslink units that used to run from Bedford to Brighton as St Albans on this line is my home town which now has brand new trains.
@@ANDREWLEONARDSMITHi used to live in Preston, and would go to blackpool on the pacers regularly, i liked them, they were unique, back then there was alot of jointed track along those routes to Blackpool and i enjoyed the bouncy rattly ride
I had to ride one of these once to get to a motorbike test. I decided to listen to my iPod on the way but had to give up because all the windows were open (it was hot summer day) and the track was a series of long, continuous curves uphill - so it was high rev, squealing bouncing nightmare of a journey. Never forgot that journey.
Honestly as a regular commuter for sixth form from Brighouse to Leeds I enjoyed the added character of these trains. You felt like a ship's captain standing up (as you invariably were)
I worked with the 142's for 14 years. Reliable as anything and they were a guard and drivers best friends. The drivers had everything where they wanted them and the open nature of the coaches meant the guard could see all the way down the train They were that basic compared to everything else that any fault could generally be cured with a kick with a size 12, a hammer or a crack with a fist. If it couldn't then it were broken. In 14 years i only had one major failure. You could only see the bus likeness from the inside with the windows, lights, he door step and even in he cabs you had the bus style opening cab windows and the cupboard for the destination blind. The Pacers in general all entered service with 4 leaf folding bus doors. As did the Leyland Nationals. But, after issues with the original bus doors. They received the 2 leaf set up instead. The brakes were originally cable brakes (just like a bike) and the same engine as a Leyland National. All before getting their 'upgrades'. I must admit I do miss working them and so do quite a few of us traincrew. Yes they weren't a passengers or even enthusiasts favourites. But, they certainly did the job they were built to and no doubt paid for themselves time and time again
I love the shot of the prototype's interior at 2:21, where we see that it literally was just a bus, with the driver right where you would expect. You'd almost expect to see the little box next to him for people to put their change in as they get on. :)
You say that, on the side of the vehicle near the doors was an illuminated sign that says "Exact Change Only"! I guess fitting the little box was beyond BR's budget! 🤷♂🤣
@@ChrisRichmond Ha, I didn't spot that. Also, it only occurred to me after posting that for some reason the prototype is laid out like a US bus, not a UK one, so the driver being "right where you would expect" is really only true for viewers who, like me, live in RHD countries.
I think it's more a case that it's BR's standard to have the driver on the left, although LEV1 did make a trip to the US. I've seen photos of it with metal "ghetto grilles" fitted over the windscreen.
Some rural trains around Lake Biwa in Japan actually have a place to put coins when you get off at unmanned stations!
Very interesting video! The emergency ladder is made of wood even on newer trains too, as you don't want to be waving a metal ladder around near live OLE or 3rd rail!
Pacers weren't cleared to use any lines that had 3rd rail electrification, because the way they bounced around meant that the bodywork was in serious danger of coming into contact with the live rail.
Was just about to comment that the wood will be for non conductive purposes.
@@stevieinselby they didn't run along 3rd rail routes but did use 3rd rail fitted platforms such as Bidston and Southport.
Isn't the current running through a 3rd rail going to just overcome the resistance of a bit of wood and kill you anyway?
@@jimmydesouza4375 definitely not, we used to "paddle up" on the old DC EMUs, (So the rail was live but you needed to isolate the train from the current, on an AC unit you just press Pan down) on the old slam door EMUs, we would use wooden paddles to lift the shoes off the juice rail. This was something I did once on a training course (Waterloo South), and like the short circuiting bar, made sure I'd never do it again :)
Whilst I hate pacers and managed to avoid them most of the time I think it is good one has been saved in the national collection, they are an important piece of our history, If it were not for them the line I knew well was destined to be made single track and a section of it closed altogether. The line is now very busy with regular trains thanks to the pacer bridging the gap. They were reliable units. I have not heard of many failures which needed another unit to be sent to rescue them. I never expected them to last as long as they did which shows how reliable they were. If only they had not kept them so long once passenger numbers began to increase, but that's not BR's fault really it was the lack of investment put into the railways.
Middle of winter, raining , windy and cold. The sight of one of these pulling up was met with relief. Naff they were but one of these would get me from one town to another quicker and more comfortably than a bus could from my house to the town centre I live in. I am quite fond of them to be truthful as they had a distinct character of their own.
I always thought of the pacers as a clear symbol of north-south divide. Northern had so many pacers running on un-electrified northern lines meanwhile in the south they had the nice electrostars and new EMUs/DMUs. Even today we have got hand me down 156s and 158s. Kind of makes me feel proud to be from the north/north east as a symbol of our resilience. Just my two pence worth 🤷🏻♂️
I recall travelling on one of the prototypes of the Pacer. It ran on the Severn Beach to Bristol Temple Meads line and I cant recall the year but I do definitely recall getting to the station and wondering why there was a bus parked at the platform! It definitely had the Leyland National body. Maybe it was around 1980 or so.
As much as I hated travlling in one, many pleasent memories were had and they had a unique atmosphere.
A night journey in a wet Welsh winter after a rugby game was definitely unique. The condensation on the glass, the stuffyness and the train feeling like it was going to fall off the track with a squeal of its wheels all to the jeers and laughter of the commuters.
Never will a such loathed train be missed and loved.
Having endured, there's no other word for it, a journey from Glasgow Central to Darlington on a scruffy class 220 where the upholstery was tired, the seat reservation system had failed, one window was opaque because the double glazing had failed and we had the bad luck to have booked onto one of the seats with no window at all, it was a pleasure to board a Pacer at Darlington for the final stretch of our journey. Why? Because after the oppressive interior of the 220, here was a light airy interior with big windows, clean, nicely upholstered seats and a vehicle that had been looked after properly. Oh yes, the crew were much nicer people too!
Living in Carlisle and travelling the Tyne Valley Line, I grew up with the Pacers. The Super Sprinters and 158s are close to my heart, as are these. All because of the engines' sound, which will stay with me for a lifetime
So many memories, our local station had one the bus layout pacers on the line. The amount of people you could fit on a bench was insane
I will never forget bouncing on a Pacer from Newport to Bristol Temple Meads via the Severn Tunnel!
The Train that never dies! Really enjoyed this Curator with the camera about the Pacer Train.
Long live the Pacer 😈
@@joelightrailway2362😂😂 yes scrapped
@@Oddly1970 Many have escaped the scrap yard.
GSM stands for "Global System for Mobile Communications", not "Global Safety Management". Otherwise great video about an apparently not so great train (never been on one myself).
Was just about to comment on this. GSM-R is just a GSM system with special extensions for railway use, like registering and calling function numbers (you can call the driver on a specific train using the train ID or call the controller for the area you're in) and provides PTT functionality for group announcements and emergency broadcasts.
A new system called LTE-R based on 4G LTE is supposed to replace it, but is not widely used yet.
Its a cell phone.
My favourite pacer story was from when we loaned 8 of them to first great Western.
You see if a company cancelled a train, they got fined a large amount of money in their franchise agreement, but if it was short formed or delayed it was much less of a fine.
So this one day they had a HST break down, it was 17:32 in London and there were over a thousand people on the platform waiting to go home, and rather than the 9 carriage train they were expecting, in squealed a single 142.
I do not envy the crew of that service.
I used to get these on the Manchester to Liverpool line all the time when visiting my grandparents as a kid, so they've got a soft spot in my heart. I honestly might be one of the few people to actually like them.
Also if this was one of the Manchester-Liverpool trains there's every chance I used this exact Pacer many times.
Growing up with these things, I used to find them awesome - with all their squeals and bounciness!
Many happy childhood/teenage days heading to Liverpool, Blackpool and Manchester on these things! Happy old days for sure!
For all their criticism, they just kept going and going and they kept many lines operating! I always thought they were great fun! 🙂
GREAT VIDEO! :-)
It will be interesting to see whether any 2nd generation DMUs such as the 150, 153, 155, 156, and 158/9 types will be preserved and kept at the museum soon. Sadly, most of these will probably be retired within the next 5-10 years. In any case, the Pacer, for all its faults, was a legendary DMU among many a train enthusiast. In my view, it deserves respect and its place within the museum. Thank you for saving a part of history for future generations to learn about. We must preserve our heritage and appreciate the legacy of our railway history.
I drove these units for 3 years at a North Wales depot back in the late 1980s. No interlock on the doors, and a lower rated TL engine underneath, but I took to them. Later, when modified, I was a passenger on many, and thought that they were a big improvement. They certainly had a very strong underframe, and those bar couplings were might strong between the two coaches!
I commuted on a Pacer or Sprinter for years & never had a problem with them. I don't know why so many people whinge about them. They're certainly better than some of the buses we currently have in service!
I've gotta say, commuting on these was hellish and I did so for about four years. But after watching this I almost feel a little nostalgic, really enjoyed this video!
Living down in the SW I always used to go to school by train and the pacer was my favourite just because you could squeeze more people onto the trains, the newer ones would always have big toilets and fewer seats and keep people on the platform
Interesting video on a bread-and-butter vehicle. Like many other undersetimated railcars it has a certain charme even not loved too much by drivers and public. They had their purpose and this reminds me massively of the "Schienenbus" class VT95 and VT98 we had here in Germany since 1950/52. Based as well on contemporary autobus design they served the same purpose and managed to keep many branch lines alive some decades.
Aber der Schienenbus war schöner und besser! Bin mit Pacer und Schienenbus gefahren...
The Pacer was more of a Scheissebus than Schienenbus 💩
@@stevieinselby Absolutly!
I used to ride these every day on the Penistone Line between Huddersfied & Sheffield. You know what? I came to love them, and I genuinely miss them things.
I really hope one remains preserved for future generations to see, especially at the larger museum in York if possible. We did what we could, with what we had available at the time, and somehow we got a train out of it that lasted around 35 years, what more could they have expected when they first built them? Thankfully I mostly used the longer 3 car 144's on the Penistone Line, so space was a bit of a smaller issue, but I loved them anytime, they just felt so odd & out of place, and I came to respect that.
Loved pacers. As a resident of the South that holidayed in the north. Seeing Pacers meant I was somewhere exotic
16:14 That's actually the "Global System for Mobile Communications -- Railway". Yes, the railway version of the same GSM that's the grandfather of the LTE system we have today.
I adore these grim frankensteins, so glad their legacy is still being actively promoted!! Such a fascinating class of trains
I'm glad it's been preserved - I passionately hated these trains and I have not fond memories of one rainy morning on a packed pacer, windows fogged up, humid as anything, and as the train braked a load of water from the roof flowed down the connecting part of the train and down my neck. I resented these trains deeply. But as said, these were a telling part of the history of British Rail and the fact they were used until so recently. I look forward to visiting this in your museum and quietly cursing at it.
I remember visiting Scarborough in 2002. It was always a little two-carriage diesel train taking us to and fro. But waiting at the platform for the return leg to York we got greeted by this strange "train", bouncing up and down and looking rather weird. We made fun of it calling it the tadpole. I was just a little kid back then, but I believe now I have the privilege of having ridden on an infamous pacer as a foreigner.
The 'go faster' swoosh on the livery made me smile.
I passed out as a driver in 1992 on NSE, (315, 317, 321,322) and then got to learn the 313, then the 400, 442, 455 over the wrong side of the river, then I ended up doing some work over in the west of england and learnt (mainly static as I was training) the 142 and was gobsmacked to find new crew door, and a new low in cab design, just when I thought this was the pinnacle of crap, I learnt the 153. :) I did ask why they were called "Nodding donkeys?" and then I had a cab ride in one.
The truth is the 142 allowed BR to keep open uneconomic branch lines, they were a necessary evil, a bit like the IBH signal, it was about reducing costs. If we count that as a factor, they were an unqualified success as the Government at the time seemed to hate public trainsport and railways in particular. The issue was they remained in service well beyond their time. Without Pacers I suspect we would have lost a lot of small branch lines in the North and west of the UK.
In the 80s I had to get the train to school in knutsford. When these appeared I thought they were so modern compared to the dirty worn out old trains which had manual doors you had to open by learning out the window
I'm usually not a fan of the NRM due to how so many serviceable exhibits get stuffed and mounted. But I have to say this is genuinely one of the most informative videos I've seen on the subject of pacers. Very well made and a very accurate account - well done indeed!
The main problem was that they kept them around for far too long.
Used them in recent years from Piccadilly to Edale for walks along the Hop Valley line to Sheffield, now upgraded !
Nice to see the unit as not altered inside, i signed & worked those from 2008 to their retirement
I rode in one of these in British Columbia, Canada in 86. It was displayed around the area during the world's fair that year and, in the summer, made a run or two the 70 odd return miles between, New Westminster and Abbotsford, BC.
Thats the cleanest Pacer toilet i've ever seen.
Remember in West and South Yorkshire commuter services the combos made of BSI coupling units sometimes the most extreme formed by a Pacer 142 and a Express Sprinter 158. People just avoided the Pacer portion as much as they could for obvious reasons.
even Pacers and 170 Turbostars could couple, but not in passenger service due to the door controls not playing nicely. A Northern 142 did actually rescue a TPE 170 once, in unfortunate circumstances.
"Pacer - Better than nothing" would have made a good tagline. I have memories of a freezing ride from Blackburn to York many Christmases ago. In happier times using it going hiking on the Esk Valley line, not like you're going very fast down there to start with and the scenery's pretty nice.
I have mixed feelings about the Pacer. Yes, the ride was noisy and uncomfortable, the seats were rock-solid, and the mere sight of one pulling up to the platform was enough to fill you with dread. But I spent my childhood riding around on these things. Every Saturday, I'd make the trip from Doncaster to Sheffield, then on into the Peak District. And those damn Pacers made the journey just as memorable as the destination! I can't say I'll really miss them, but I certainly won't forget them in a hurry...
In Poland there were similar constructions. I always thought they were horrible, but when compared with Pacer I can say our railbuses were quite luxurious 😂
Locomotives services Limited have just Received a 142 pacer. They currently have it Repainted to Manchester orange and black
Its going to a museum.. LSL have no plans to run 142s as far as I know
@@terrier_productions Dodged a bullet!
We need more Museum Channels on TH-cam, loving this format!
This is the video that made me discover this TH-cam Chanel and omg I’m so glad I discovered it… never knew the national railway museum had a TH-cam !! I should have obviously known given it’s 2023 lol !! Anyways I am now a subscriber to this Channel !! Very informative and interesting video and very well produced. Nice to see some archived footage of the development and subsequent roll out of the pacer and it’s future iterations
Thanks for joining us. We hope you enjoy our back catalogue. :) This episode about the Pacer is doing really well and we're chuffed to bits with it!
@@NatRailwayMuseum the pacer has been my nemesis for years… I live directly back onto the northern line at Seaham where these wonderful but beastly machines once trundled up and down at so many silly hours… forever I loathed the squeak of the running gear. However now I only hear the grand central train from London to Edinburgh and back etc… it’s still annoying but less so nowadays lol.
@@NatRailwayMuseum My first one too. I went on Keighley and Worth Valley's class 144 pacer just after Christmas. It was full!
I'd never used trains to get about until I needed to get from Wigan to Manchester for a few months back in 2017.
I avoided trains because I get motion sickness and the pacer was actually great for me, because they had so much windows and lack of high backed seats made them great for me and never felt sick on them.
Aaaah Pacers ,wretched from top to bottom but having said that they earned their corn ,cheap ,reliable ,no fuss transport ,should the NRM have one ,well yes as they were the first of a series of next gen units .Great video thank you.
A nice wee tour and education on pacers, thanks very much for sharing this with us
Thank you sir. What an incredible representation. one of the best stories I've ever enjoyed.
Growing up in West Yorkshire these were everywhere when I was a kid.
My daughter is a guard at Northern she loved them.
I didn't use them frequently, but when I did I thought them "quaint". I can see how quickly you would get fed up of them if you used them every day though!!
Here's a story for you. Early 1980 I was staying at my Grandparent's gatekeepers cottage along the East Suffolk Link between the stations of Beccles & Oulton Board South when an odd single carriage yellow "thing" stopped at the gates to ring the signal box @ Lowestoft. This was the LEV1; the test vehicle described in the video. It was on it's test run from Ipswich to Lowestoft on Sunday morning. I was offered a lift on it to Lowestoft which I took; because oddly the LEV1 at that time had better steps to climb onboard at ground level as they originally thought they might be able to use the train for request stops! From what I understand I was the first non-BR/Leyland passenger on that train; I was asked to fill in a questionnire about the train and that was numbered 1...
A few weeks later I got a package of all the details of the LEV1 from BR Darby. Including the fact that these trains were never really meant to be any more than a single car train. BTW where is the LEV1 now?
Lev 1 is stored at national railway museum at Shildon
Lev 2 went to America and was scrapped after being damaged on trials
Lev 3 was Converted to Irish gauge, was trialled on the now closed antrim to Lisburn line . As far as i know it's at the Downpatrick and county Down railway .RB004 (lev4)
Is stored as a static exhibition at Whiterope summit on the Southern section of the waverly route
AFAIK LEV1 moved from the North Norfolk Railway to NRM Shildon in 2012.
A prototype of the pacers is at wensleydale railway
As a tourist, in the summer, I really liked the view afforded by the low seat backs and relatively high ride, and the light and airy interior. I doubt commuters, in the winter, felt the same.
Great video, very informative and well presented.
Never ridden in a Pacer but I like the utilitarianism of it. If it’s a choice between this, with an affordable wide ranging public transport system or a more expensive, more luxurious/comfortable ride with a smaller network I know which I’d choose.
Great film!!
really enjoyed this video, great to see the old Pacer.
100 years ago the State of Victoria in Australia had something similar. One has been recently been located and is being restored. Again, they were a glorified bus. There is a photo I've just seen of an AEC Railmotor that fits the criteria. Another railmotor shell has been found in a wreckers yard and is now being restored, but this one is a 1936 Dodge sedan on steel wheels.
I’m very happy the NRM recognise the place of the Pacer in the National collection and the contribution to the railway over the past 40 years. They did a job for which they where never designed (I.e. intense operation rather than just branch lines for which they where intended) which is a testimony to British Engineering of which the manufacturers are just memory.
I just hope they preserve 142001 and don’t let it rot and decay like so many other non-steam exhibits.
I do hope the NRM will also recognise the role of the British Rail Sprinter family of which much of the success and growth of provincial railway over the past 40 years has been built upon.
That was a lot of fun; thanks!
It's truly important to preserve these, as a cautionary tale.
Thank-you!
Love 😍 😍 these videos..
Always so interesting and educational...
Trains are so worth preserving for the future..
Remember they helped us travel and shaped the world 🗺 today...
Loved the video very nostalgic, my dad worked on the railway carrying out maintanace sadly passed away when i was 16, im 44 now, i would love to work on the railway, i have a passion for it, i would love to become a train driver espescially on the manchester picalldily to blackpool north line, know it so well, just dont know how to go about it, if i could achive that, my dad would be so proud, remember the pacers being quite a rough and nosiey ride if i remember, i do love the sprinter generation of trains, thankyou for the tour of the pacer, brings back childhood memeories
The last time I used one of the later versions of these, I was trying to escape from York when the sudden unseasonal April snow had stopped everything railwise going south. The only option was a roundabout route to Sheffield which at least had me going in the right direction. We had a bit of a layover at pontifract, for what seemed like a lifetime but probably was only 20 to 30 mins with the bus doors wide open to the siberian blast, the whole time. This has given me another deep seated dislike of pontifract to go along with the liquorice cakes. We also got waylaid at Rotherham because meadow Hall was blocked. When we finally got to Sheffield it was a tremendous relief.
It had taken such a long time, that the glaciers had moved off of the lines and a coupe of hours later I could catch the penzance train all the way home. How that train got through, when others on much shorter routes (including over the same tracks) couldn't, still perplexes me. I could have waited 4 to 5 hours and got a direct ride.
One big lesson I learned that day. Panicking, only gets you a ride on a pacer.
I have very fond memories of traveling from Carlisle to Newcastle on these 'rattlers'. The big windows were great for admiring the scenery of the lovely Tyne Valley.
First time I went on a Pacer was in 1987 in Devon and Cornwall, all the way from Plymouth to Newquay! It certainly squealed around the almost 180° curve on leaving Par. (I was told Liskeerd to Coombe Junction on the Looe branch was even worse for decibels!!)
Great memories of these things. Nothing could beat a trip from Salford Crescent to Entwistle. A few drinks in the Strawbury Duck, then back to Salford. Aaah, those student days.
its wild that I used to ride this very train on my commute from Wakefield Westgate to Huddersfield daily a couple years back. Used to see these in the sidings at Huddersfield all the time too.
I was a guard at Manchester and one of my least favourite jobs was taking 2 pacers up to Barrow very early in the morning. 4 hours of bang bang thump thump. The ride back on a 150 was luxurious by comparison.
As someone who traveled into and out of Manchester for years on one of these. So happy when they were retired for good.
Very interesting and informative video :)
The sound of that metal on metal, that very scream for mercy, oft heightened because some fool had opened the window, of a 142 chundeling its way between Derker and Oldham Mumps station is a memory that I will carry to my grave
I went to the national rail museum loads of times as a kid, Might go back there some day to see all these Preserved Trains! As a northerner, I’ve had so much experience on northern Pacers whether it’s coming home from Leeds city or Going to morecambe or Blackpool south, they bumped us along to our destination!
Was visiting the railway museum not a couple of weeks back, loved it as ever, and I’d love to see one on display there.
It's nice that you also have HSFV 1 at Locomotion.
Use to get the Pacer from Manchester to Sheffield on my way home from college in 2010. So noisy and slow and bumpy.
People used to thrown stones at the train as we went through New Mills.
Ah the old Pacers, they were bouncy, noisy, rickety, drafty and made you feel like you were in a storm at sea when up to speed, but at the end of the day, they got you from A to B.
Wooden ladders don't conduct electricity quite the same, overhead catenary is the risk here.
This train used to plague Paragon Station in Hull...
It was a long running joke that if this train turned up to take you to your destination, you were about to have a terrible day out.
I remember commuting to and from Leeds in one of these, up to only a few years ago.
Often just two cars between Leeds and Manchester at 17:00 on a weekday...
I recall one guard at Leeds offering a free ticket to anyone willing to get off to allow him to squeeze on!
Great Western Railway still has the Pacer trains that are mainly used in Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset and Bristol.
I was always glad of them to get me home from Manchester after a night on the ale 😂
Apparently these were considered for running services in Victoria, instead we got the Sprinters around 1992. The Sprinters were more of a rail vehicle and all are still running today AFAIK.
Talk about dodging a bullet . The Sprinters are pretty smooth running and nice for a railcar, these look pretty shit haha
Still use them in East Yorkshire. I used them during my college days - moved out now
I recall the Sprinter contract was mostly completed and delivered under Labor and could not be rescinded by the incoming Kennett government, he would have canceled them if he could.
Commuted daily to my first professional job after uni on one of those - for all the screeching and bone shaking it was airy, spacious and had a toilet so useful on the way back after a few post work pints in the pub opposite the office!
i loved the pacer's. had character of there own.
Anyone who went to school on a Leyland bus would remember seats like those on the Pacer, and those windows. I remember a trip on one during a family holiday down in Devon - that squealing noise as it rounded the corners is something I have never forgotten. They were definitely built to a budget, and that's being kind! My nearest heritage railway has taken delivery of an ex-Northern Class 144 and, sad person that I am, I'm actually looking forward to getting a run on it when they get it going.
Interestingly, there's also a railbus in Sri Lanka, where they run the thing on a Leyland (Lanka Ashok Leyland) bus's body modified to run on tracks.
It was certainly fun on Leeds to Sheffield via Moorthorpe in slippy season, back in the day. Step 1 and all wheels lock up.
I recently visited the Nation Railway museum and it was incredible. But the thought of an old pacer sitting next to the Mallard makes me laugh :D
As someone who has ridden the Pacer literally thousands of times due to work commune, i can say it is by far my most hated piece of technology ever. I'd rather roll naked over a mile long track of broken lego pieces to get to my destination than to use another Pacer
When the pacers were in use down in Devon that train shown at the start 142001 it was one I took a fair few times to college