zavanak.com
Thanks for the link. There is no doubt that Eric Woodcock isn't a Pacer fan (and certainly wasn't a member of BR's Investment Committee).Home - Zavanak - Project management, transport and more
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...as in the opening post.
Some Class 141 units went to Iran, yes. These were super-basic, quite literally pretty much a MK2 Leyland National on a wagon underframe. They made the 142/3/4s look sophisticated!
They were highly unreliable when new and had a vast amount of changes from what rolled off the production line to what was retired from service.The Pacers were simple, generally reliable, and cheap both to lease and operate - and, shock horror, actually perfectly adequate for plenty of routes.
Travelling on a Pacer was no worse than travelling on a Class 150 still is today, and will continue to be for some years to come. Their withdrawal was primarily a political move, driven by a vocal few with certain agendas. I very much doubt that the passengers of Northern or TfW, who were crammed into short formed services in the middle of a pandemic, thought that their withdrawal was so vital that it was sensible to push it through despite there being no replacement ready. Given the multitude of hurdles that have beset numerous fleets of eye-wateringly expensive new trains, there is a lot to be said for the simple, fit-for-purpose approach of a train like the Pacer.
End of rant!
It might be plausible that the Sprinter classes were planned to last longer than the Pacers, in a bid to avoid repeating the peaks of DMU orders in the late 50s (eliminating steam) and late 80s (asbestos), with a dearth of orders in between. (This makes procurement difficult, because when the orsers dry up builders reduce capacity (or go out of business altogether) and are not available to meet the demand when it returns)
Wikipedia uses these sources
The slamdoor trains replacing in the south around that time were based around the Mk1 design, so ancient technology really by the time they were replaced.
I wonder how available were spare parts to Iran in the early 2000’s ?
Not entirely! The famous Bathgate re-opening, promoted by ScR management, was actually predicated on using cheap Pacers and indeed started with them in use.
Ive seen a pacer at Inverness, got a picture of it in the depot.
In principle yes, yet at least one notable exception comes to mind. Gerry Fiennes stated concerning purchasing the Deltic's that expecting ECML electrification would follow WCML, the Deltics, "were to be a stopgap for ten years only, we thought it prudent to amortise capital at a rate of over £400,000 a year", on a fleet cost of £4m (Fiennes in Allen & Fiennes 'The Deltics', 1978, pp16-7). Clearly history overtook that expectation, yet later on Roger Ford (ibid, p32) makes it clear that the small, nonstandard and heavily pushed fleet was always time limited.
not a pacer body, but one using Leyland body panels, much like the class 153 / 155
Not really
Pic there at East Kent Railway in '94 - does it still exist?
As noted in the link posted, it is at the Gwendraeth Valley Railway in Carmarthenshire
Thanks! Apols, I'd not studied the interesting Tran Testing page carefully enough.
Given all that was spent on them within a few years of being built to replace major components (doors, brakes, engines, transmissions), were they really that much cheaper than more 150s?