Good old 1990's on Teesside

[pennine]

Does anyone remember when it seemed the only train to run from Saltburn - Darlington was a class 153. I think it was up untill Northern Spirit. Does anyone know when and why there were taken out of service from this line? Always been curious lol

 

[ainsworth74]

I was unaware that Heaton had ever had an allocation of 153s let alone enough to run nearly all the services between Saltburn and Darlo.

 

[pennine]

Yup most of the time! Grew up in Saltburn always on them!

 

[Royston Vasey]

Yep, used them regularly to get to the cricket at Chester Le Street from Newcastle. Always a 153. This would be about 1998-2000, so pre Arriva. And often 47s and Mk 2s back from Darlo! Happy days.

 

[sprinterguy]

I was unaware that Heaton had ever had an allocation of 153s let alone enough to run nearly all the services between Saltburn and Darlo.

As soon as the class 153s were converted from 155s, Regional Railways North East’s allocation was based at Heaton (Originally eleven units, later twelve). They were officially reallocated to Neville Hill during Northern Spirit’s tenure of the franchise but their diagrams remained unaffected: They regularly worked the Bishop Auckland – Saltburn services as single units (And also the Darlington - Newcastle ECML services as Royston Vasey describes), and worked services on the Durham Coast route through Sunderland (primarily the shorter distance services) either in pairs or singly.

The transfer of the North East 153 diagrams away from the North East local services was an Arriva Trains Northern initiative that was implemented in around 2002 and saw their work consolidated in the Yorkshire area. I’ve wondered in the past whether it was anything to do with the reduction in the number of diagrams required on the Durham Coast following the implementation of the Sunderland Metro extension that allowed the 153s to be released.

 

[ainsworth74]

Interesting thank you