Super Sprinters

[dickdarlington]

Thanks for all your replies. I am more confused now than before.

I think 'Failed Unit' has come closest to answering my intended question, in that some 156's had sprinter on them, and others had super sprinter on them. The 158's did have express incorporated into their logo. And I was extremely excited as a boy to be able to finally get on one (from Perth to Aberdeen when visiting the grand folks). The 158 is possibly my second favourite train formation (after the HST of course).

Wasn't aware that the 150's -> were all in the sprinter class. You learn something new everyday.

Thanks all.

 

[rail-britain]

The Sprinter was the original term to the second generation DMU introduced through the 1980s
These can be identified by the dual doors equally spaced along the 20m body (the only exception being the Class 150/0 and Class 151)

The SuperSprinter was simply a branding, rather than an actual specification
The idea was to make it easier to identify the unit as they primarily took over from loco hauled services
This applied to the non-airconditioned 23m body, being the Class 155 and Class 156

The Sprinter Express then applied to the Class 158
Due these units being airconditioned with a higher speed limit a unique livery was applied
This then allowed future operators to separate these from the other Sprinters
At the time they were taking over a variety of services, the loco hauled services being in provincial, regional, ScotRail, and InterCity

 

[Lampshade]

150 = Sprinter

153, 155, 156 = Super Sprinter

158 = Express Sprinter

159 = Wessex Turbo

 

[route:oxford]

159 = Wessex Turbo

158 = Scotrail Express

 

[rail-britain]

158 = Scotrail Express

Only some of them
ScotRail went one further, adding their branding to them near the centre of the unit, and snowploughs

 

[sprinterguy]

ScotRail went one further, adding their branding to them near the centre of the unit, and snowploughs

158701-751 were fitted with miniature snowploughs from new, or maybe nearly-new, for the Scotrail network, with 158701-746 forming the original Scottish allocation: I wonder if it was originally the intention that 158747-751 were to be Scottish units, given that they were fitted with this feature but were then subject to the unusual decision of being put on Crosscountry duties.

 

[route:oxford]

158701-751 were fitted with miniature snowploughs from new, or maybe nearly-new, for the Scotrail network, with 158701-746 forming the original Scottish allocation: I wonder if it was originally the intention that 158747-751 were to be Scottish units, given that they were fitted with this feature but were then subject to the unusual decision of being put on Crosscountry duties.

Although wouldn't some of these Crosscountry 158s undertake duties on the Scotland-Manchester Airport-South diagrams?

 

[sprinterguy]

Although wouldn't some of these Crosscountry 158s undertake duties on the Scotland-Manchester Airport-South diagrams?

Indeed they did.

 

[theblackwatch]

158701-751 were fitted with miniature snowploughs from new, or maybe nearly-new, for the Scotrail network, with 158701-746 forming the original Scottish allocation: I wonder if it was originally the intention that 158747-751 were to be Scottish units, given that they were fitted with this feature but were then subject to the unusual decision of being put on Crosscountry duties.

Only up to 158733 (or around there) were originally based in Scotland when they were first released. 158734 et al were Trans Pennine units when they first came out.

 

[tbtc]

Although wouldn't some of these Crosscountry 158s undertake duties on the Scotland-Manchester Airport-South diagrams?

IIRC they also worked Liverpool - Portsmouth XC services (in BR days)

 

[sprinterguy]

Only up to 158733 (or around there) were originally based in Scotland when they were first released. 158734 et al were Trans Pennine units when they first came out.

Interesting, I'd always thought that they all went straight to Scotland. They can't have stayed Transpennine units very long? About two years perhaps?

 

[185]

Lordy. The past must be getting murky.

158 Express Sprinter
156 Super Sprinter
150 Sprinter

155 Just had reggie railways stuck on it

142 Just had Biffa bin collections on it

Ok, so I lied about the last one

 

[theblackwatch]

Interesting, I'd always thought that they all went straight to Scotland. They can't have stayed Transpennine units very long? About two years perhaps?

Less than that in some cases: Checking my notes, I rode on 158736 on a Trans Pennine set in Feb 91 (the 158s had been introduced the month before), and on a Glasgow QS-Edinburgh service in July of that year.

 

[Anvil1984]

Lordy. The past must be getting murky.

158 Express Sprinter
156 Super Sprinter
150 Sprinter

155 Just had reggie railways stuck on it

142 Just had Biffa bin collections on it

Ok, so I lied about the last one

155s either carried Sprinter or West Yorkshire branding as appropriate .pics are on traintesting.com. can't post link as posting on ps3 using controller

 

[OuterDistant]

I once had a trip on 154002. That's been a Sprinter and a Super Sprinter!

 

[Lampshade]

I once had a trip on 154002. That's been a Sprinter and a Super Sprinter!

It's a not-so-Super Sprinter then

 

[jopsuk]

What about the 151 prototypes whilst they were in service (wikipedia says they were withdrawn in 1989, having been introduced 1985)- did they ever get "Sprinter" branding?

As I understood it, it was as much about service branding as anything else- certainly not a manufacturer's "family" name (like todays Turbo/Electrostars, Desiros, Junipers etc), what with classes built by BREL, Metro-Cammel and British Leyland.

 

[sprinterguy]

What about the 151 prototypes whilst they were in service (wikipedia says they were withdrawn in 1989, having been introduced 1985)- did they ever get "Sprinter" branding?

As I understood it, it was as much about service branding as anything else- certainly not a manufacturer's "family" name (like todays Turbo/Electrostars, Desiros, Junipers etc), what with classes built by BREL, Metro-Cammel and British Leyland.

No the 151s never did, they retained a variant of Provincial livery with no branding throughout their short lives. Come to think of it, I’m not sure the prototype 150s received “Sprinter” branding at any point either.

The “Sprinter” brand was definitely more of a marketing tool to identify the family of trains with the general public than a manufacturers’ brand name.

 

[Failed Unit]

150/0 both had Sprinter branding as did 150002 when it was converted into 154002. Very few 150/1 ever carried sprinter branding. Some were painted into proper provincial livery but most went from the light blue to PTE (Centro and GMPTE)

I remember the E and S symbols in the timetable.

 

[rail-britain]

The pair of Class 150/0 originally had a unique provincial livery (which eventually became the standard livery as applied to the Class 150/2)
Equally, there was no branding
As above, it wasn't until conversion to Class 154 that the standard livery was applied

The original livery on the Class 150/1 was also unique and without any branding
However these units were known as sprinters
Some timetables and promotional leaflets even stated so
Yet again this livery was too light and showed up dirty too easily, hence the livery change for the Class 150/2

 

[Oswyntail]

...
The “Sprinter” brand was definitely more of a marketing tool to identify the family of trains with the general public than a manufacturers’ brand name.

Exactly. The Pacers were a family (inner suburban / branch line - also known in the SW as Skippers), the Sprinters were the next group (outer suburban - central doors, 20 metres), SuperSprinters next (long rural/intra-urban, end doors, 23 metres). I can remember BBC News items covering the launch of these, publicising the name. There was even some talk of marketing the 317/8/9 EMUs as ElectricSprinters.
The 158/159 are NOT Sprinters but were marketed as "Express". Different construction altogether and were intended for the remaining intra-urban routes (ie a fair few CrossCountry routes not covered by HSTs). Occasionally they would be called "Scotrail Express" or "Regional Express". The livery was a new "Express" livery (a development of, but not the same as, the "Regional" livery) which carried the word "Express" preceded by "Regional" or "Scotrail" as appropriate, but I do not believe that was part of the brand. Again, there were several BBC items publicising this brand name. IIRC, timetables showed what type of service it was.

 

[rail-britain]

The 158/159 are NOT Sprinters but were marketed as "Express"

Sadly they were
I managed to get a set of livery drawings from the RTC during the 1990s
The heading was "Sprinter Express Class 158"
There were four different livery designs, only three of them ever appeared; EXPRESS, standard, and NSE
The fourth was for InterCity, but in the end the units were cascaded from those already build

 

[Oswyntail]

Sadly they were
I managed to get a set of livery drawings from the RTC during the 1990s
The heading was "Sprinter Express Class 158"
There were four different livery designs, only three of them ever appeared; EXPRESS, standard, and NSE
The fourth was for InterCity, but in the end the units were cascaded from those already build

I suspect the "Sprinter" tag was dropped before it became public - they are certainly totally different, and were marketed as such. I would also like to know the difference between "Express" and "Standard", as IIRC they were all "Express" or NSE.

 

[dk1]

I travelled to Leeds to sample a 150/2 when new on a 6-car Trans-Pennine working. Was really impressed at the time even with those awful black seat backs. Reading a copy of Rail on the way home it had an article on the Super-Sprinter class 156s which where to go onto the Anglia-North West routes the following year. I was suprised to hear then that these where intended for medium distance journey's & would be superseded by the 90mph class 158.

When allocated some of the 156s where sent away to Wales to cover for the grounded 155s that where stored at Fratton etc. The 06.40 Norwich to Birmingham then being announced as EXPRESS, even though booked for a Super-Sprinter, EXPRESS being the title given to the Provincial long distance network, was reguarlly formed by a block ender suburban WM 3-car dmu with no toilet facilities but a at-seat trolley located in the brake!!

 

[rail-britain]

I suspect the "Sprinter" tag was dropped before it became public - they are certainly totally different, and were marketed as such

ScotRail promoted them as Sprinter Express during the introduction
After their first year this was removed
The idea was to show the difference between a Sprinter, Sprinter Express, and loco hauled service