Were there any routes or areas where BR considered using Pacers but never did?

45Fox said:

Years ago a retired Nottingham guard told me that he and a driver conducted an Eastern Region crew on a pacer (not sure if a 142, 143 or 144) on the soon to be opened Robin Hood line in the 1990s, not long after they had learnt it. Don't know if this was the initial service from Nottingham to Newstead or one of the later extensions, Mansfield/Worksop, but he did tell me it was the latter days of BR.

They were told at the time that this was to assess the suitability of pacers for the service.
Happily, it was obviously decided they weren't suitable.

Click to expand...

I suppose if they had been deemed suitable for the Robin Hood Line, we might have got Pacers on other East Midlands services such as Derby-Matlock and Nottingham-Skegness.

I wonder if the Class 140 was ever tested on the Matlock line? The Matlock branch (and the Wirksworth branch when it was part of the BR network) has a long history of being used as a testbed for new units.

I also wonder if BR ever considered using Pacers on the Thames Valley branches or Anglia local services.

AY1975 said:

I also wonder if BR ever considered using Pacers on the Thames Valley branches or Anglia local services.

Click to expand...

I don't recall Anglia ever being threatened with Pacers.

Anglia were still using first generation Metro Cammell DMUs on local services until just before privatisation. The local services were squeezed in the lead up to privatisation, with 1tp2h on routes from Ipswich, only 5tpd through to Cambridge, a Cambridge-Bury St Edmunds shuttle between the peaks, and no Norwich-Cambridge local service at all. It was a very different world to what Greater Anglia do now.

When the Metro Cammells were withdrawn they were replaced by a small fleet of, I think, 10*class 150 and 5*class 153, which came from somewhere else in Regional Railways, presumably freed up by a similar squeeze on local services somewhere else.

Thames Valley is not my area but I think the branches went straight from first generation DMUs to class 165/166.

LEV 1 was trialed in East Anglia and the experience scarred a lot of people there! They got themselves out of any subsequent RR discussions about using Pacers there.

Equally, NSE wanted their own DMU design and viewed Pacers with disdain.

Magdalia said:

Thames Valley is not my area but I think the branches went straight from first generation DMUs to class 165/166.

Click to expand...

They already had single railcars with the 121 and 122 units which were essentially the driving cars of 117s etc with a cab at both ends. The 165/166 order replaced the lot and also replaced the loco hauled Mk1/Mk2 sets on the runs to Oxford etc.

AY1975 said:

I suppose if they had been deemed suitable for the Robin Hood Line, we might have got Pacers on other East Midlands services such as Derby-Matlock and Nottingham-Skegness.

I wonder if the Class 140 was ever tested on the Matlock line? The Matlock branch (and the Wirksworth branch when it was part of the BR network) has a long history of being used as a testbed for new units.

I also wonder if BR ever considered using Pacers on the Thames Valley branches or Anglia local services.

Click to expand...

Nottingham to Skegness on a pacer would have certainly been an experience; I travelled from Sheffield to Hull on a 142 in 1992 and once was enough, never again!

I don't know if the 140 was ever trialled on the Matlock line, with the RTC being at Derby it would have made sense but I can't recall ever seeing it (or any photos of it) on the Matlocks.

I suspect that pacers were never seriously considered for the Thames Valley branches, I know that the 210s were trialled on suburban services from Paddington but don't know if they ever got down any of the branch lines.

No knowledge about if BR considered them for East Anglia, others might know more though.

45Fox said:

I suspect that pacers were never seriously considered for the Thames Valley branches, I know that the 210s were trialled on suburban services from Paddington but don't know if they ever got down any of the branch lines.

Click to expand...

There's a picture from 1983 of a 210 leaving Bourne End for Marlow. Given that the platform at Bourne End now only takes a two car 165, it must have been a tight fit for a three car 210.

MarlowDonkey said:

There's a picture from 1983 of a 210 leaving Bourne End for Marlow. Given that the platform at Bourne End now only takes a two car 165, it must have been a tight fit for a three car 210.

Click to expand...

If its the picture I've seen, that was actually the 4-car unit!

AY1975 said:

I wonder if the Class 140 was ever tested on the Matlock line?

Click to expand...

Colin J. Marsden in "The Second Generation DMUs" states that it was tested on the Matlock branch in spring 1981 prior to being touted to the PTEs, but I haven't been able to find any other supporting references or photos myself.