Anyone know anything about these?

[stevefreestone]

I've been given literally hundreds of old railway photographs and go through them now and again when I have time; I've come across this one:





Any idea about age or what exactly it was used for? There is sadly no written information on the back of the photograph.

 

[507 001]

Well it's a cravens class 105 for a start

 

[stevefreestone]

Well it's a cravens class 105 for a start

LOL, nice start. It says something like 'route learning saloon' on the livery?

 

[O L Leigh]

It's just what it says it is. It's a redundant railcar used for route learning or route refreshing. It would run as a special over a route that is not normally used by a certain operator so that their drivers can learn the route before operating their trains over it.

O L Leigh

 

[MK Tom]

Essentially the exact same use as the Chiltern blue and grey class 121 today. This has been done a lot over history. South West Trains used to have a class 122 for similar use.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

It's either:

TDB977123 ( 51286 ) + TDB977125 ( 56444 )

or:

TDB977124 ( 51296 ) + TDB977126 ( 56445 )

Both were based at Lincoln but would have covered a very wide area.

 

[12CSVT]

It's either:

TDB977123 ( 51286 ) + TDB977125 ( 56444 )

or:

TDB977124 ( 51296 ) + TDB977126 ( 56445 )

Both were based at Lincoln but would have covered a very wide area.

According to the book 'DMU & EMU Disposal' by Ashley Butlin, both units were withdrawn from passenger service in November 1992. They were in departmental stock until 1990, and were based at Cambridge after Lincoln depot closed in 1987.