Pacers love em or hate em?

[ACE1888]

Good for a day out on their South West 'farewell' tour, wheel flats and all! Seriously though, they sum up the 'cheapskate' attitude of finance to BR in the 1980's to a tee

 

[Nym]

Where as nowerdays the cheapskate attitude just results in no trains rather than cheap trains...

 

[Robinson]

Don't they have to be gone by 2019 or something when the new disability regulations are due to come in?

 

[sprinterguy]

Don't they have to be gone by 2019 or something when the new disability regulations are due to come in?

There's essenitally no feasible way that they can be made fully compliant with the new DDA regulations that come in on January 1st 2020.

 

[175001]

ANOTHER ONE!? Yawn!

 

[Hydro]

ANOTHER "another pacer thread?!?!" comment?

 

[bocaj]

Pacers, the worst class ever! They throw you about and it feels like you are going to derail, baisicly it's a bus on track. However, as allready said, they have saved branchlines from closure, this is probably the only good thing about they in my mind.

Jacob

 

[Blindtraveler]

if I could bash them every day, I would!
I'm all up for the 2nd gen version - a wright bus body with appropriate crashworthy adjustments, sliding or plug doors and 21st century bus style DP seating and maybe even a smily face at the end! Bring it on! Maybe even build an electric and a deezol version as new stock for northwest electriffication.

There! Thats how much0I like them!

 

[Temple Meads]

Perhaps we need an FAQ with topics such as:

• Some people do actually like Pacers
• Voyager toilets are smelly
• What those little slidey things on platforms are for
• How ugly Class 70s are
• All the possible Cow jokes

Thanks for giving me my biggest laugh of the week

As for Pacers, I like them as an enthusiast, they certainly have a lot of charm, but I wouldn't be so keen if I was commuting on every day.

Would be very interesting to see what a 21st century version would be like though!

 

[pdq]

The 144s coming out with refurbished seating, a thorough clean and repaint, and new flooring and lighting are vastly different places to be than a 142.

I was on a 142 recently with a brand new exterior paint job but it was dark and dingy inside with knackered seats. Is there any reason why Northern aren't doing the insides of these units up as well to match the standards of the 144s?

 

[Peter Sarf]

Another damn thread covering the same ground on non-bogie abberrations.

Is there any country in the world with more embarrasing rolling stock. Makes me ashamed. The bendy buses in London are newer than those non-bogie aberrations. They have now been erradicated (or at least only one route left 27 ?). Took Boris less time to recognise they were inapprop0riate than we have spent working out what excuses are needed to get rid of the non-bogie abberations.

Arrrrgh.

 

[Blindtraveler]

assume northern are doing the 144s first so they can diagram them to more long distance work? I believe these have high back 2 plus 2?

 

[pdq]

Yes that's right. Just seems an odd order to do things as the 144s were generally nicer places to be than a 142 even before the recent refurbs.

 

[Nym]

if I could bash them every day, I would!
I'm all up for the 2nd gen version - a wright bus body with appropriate crashworthy adjustments, sliding or plug doors and 21st century bus style DP seating and maybe even a smily face at the end! Bring it on! Maybe even build an electric and a deezol version as new stock for northwest electriffication.

There! Thats how much0I like them!

I would be in favour of a wright bodied 'pacer' provided the drivetrain used 2.7m bogies, the same as the rest of the stock on the UK network (most of it anyway)

 

[HSTEd]

I would be in favour of a wright bodied 'pacer' provided the drivetrain used 2.7m bogies, the same as the rest of the stock on the UK network (most of it anyway)

Which would remove most of the benefits of using the body in the first place :P

How about having Talgo style split axles to remove the squeal on bends and better suspensions?

 

[Blindtraveler]

you got it buddy! They would, even with that kind of thing be cheep and quick to produce, look how many writes are in service on bus networks country wide, its the ideal thing!

Maybe if there were a 4 car version 1 of those could have a croud busting, people swallowing LO 378 Style interior with lots of space for short trips and advertise the formation at busy comuter stations.

 

[sprinterguy]

Pacers, the worst class ever!

Pacers are more than just the 142s you know. There's three classes of Pacer currently in service. And there were also the 141s up until a decade or so ago.

 

[Nym]

Which would remove most of the benefits of using the body in the first place :P

How about having Talgo style split axles to remove the squeal on bends and better suspensions?

You thinking what I'm thinking about not having any axles, and using semi flexable driveshafts and CV joints? Or running it as an EDMU/DEMU with one traction motor per hub?

You could just use single mounted hubs an polyester bushing for when the're traversing curves.

 

[Yew]

If you look, the bodies of 153's use bus techniques (riveted aluminium pannels and such) this allows some costs to be cut, yet still have a good ride quality. If you look at the bodies of 153's, a lot of them are in a lot beter condition that 156's

 

[Schnellzug]

I don't see why they couldn't use pivoting pony trucks like on steam locos so they wouldn't need to have a long rigid wheelbase which was the main problem, I think because they decided to use a freight wagon chassis since it was available, and, well, cheap I suppose. A modern Railbus, perhaps with hybrid drive, might be an interesting idea for those more lightly used branches.

 

[Eeveevolve]

Love Pacers. Run up and down all day with a cheer. Like Thomas the Tank Engine.

Just one question about them. What is it about them that is not compliant with the DDA?

 

[Temple Meads]

Love Pacers. Run up and down all day with a cheer. Like Thomas the Tank Engine.

Just one question about them. What is it about them that is not compliant with the DDA?

My guess would be that is the large step up into the carriage.

 

[gnolife]

I personally prefer pacers to the 156s (or 185s if I'm really unlucky for some of the trips that I do) that can also run most of my train travel (between Stockport, Man Airport, Moses Gate, Altrincham and Rose Hill). I feel that the door layout for 156s is not at all suitable for all-shack runs in the GM area, with the aisles being really cramped and difficult to get through. 185s are just massively overcrowded, and not loud enough (I like trains that I can actually hear!). 142s, while they are a little on the small side, have seats that I find really comfy to sit on, and apart from squealing a little around Hyde North, Skelton Junction and Ardwick (which every other class also has -actually not sure about 185s, I always use Calder Valley for trips to Leeds and beyond), there isn't much to for me personally to dislike

They're Pacerlicious!!!

lol

 

[sprinterguy]

Just one question about them. What is it about them that is not compliant with the DDA?

As Temple Meads says, there's the large step up into the carriage, and there'd also be the loss of seating involved with any attempt to fit a fully DDA compliant toilet into the units.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

As Temple Meads says, there's the large step up into the carriage, and there'd also be the loss of seating involved with any attempt to fit a fully DDA compliant toilet into the units.

Are the doors and door controls also not DDA compliant ?

 

[Nym]

Wow, door controls, a new kind of ramp and toilets, theres a reason to scrap over 120 units with no foreseeable replacement... (Only 50 will be gone with TPE N and Lancs Triangle wires, and thats with no capacity increases)

 

[OMGitsDAVE]

I personally think of it this way;
Without them, this countries railway would be in a terrible state... they do a job, and do it well.

 

[DesiroDom]

I personally think of it this way;
Without them, this countries railway would be in a terrible state... they do a job, and do it well.

I agree with that no doubt about it but they will be withdrawn by 2019 because they are not DDA compliant having said that 144's and 143's are in my opinion more reliable and look nice inside compared to the 142's which seriously need a refresh I mean even if they refreshed the interior then they will be nicer to ride on.

 

[ValleyLines142]

I live entirely in a Pacer world, except for the occasional appearance of a 150, but they're okay. They're gone by 2019 anyway because disability access needs to be met.

 

[DesiroDom]

It would be better if Northern did them out once in awhile considering the ones I use have the beige window surrounds they need a refresh considering they have not had a refurb since the late 90's