Worldwide Sprinters

[kevsmiththai]

One of the things that stopped me in my tracks the first time I went to Thailand was finding Diesel Multiple units identical to the British class 158s running in and out of Bangkok's Hua Lamphong station. On returning to the U.K investigations revealed that during production there were two parralel production lines, one producing the metre gauge ones for the State railway of Thailand and one producing the standard gauge ones for British Rail. The similarities even extended to the original colour scheme which was the British 'Regional Railways' livery.

Some of my mates at Barrow Hill roundhouse were asking about these so I put together a short video showing the similarities and differences between the distant cousins.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UaFx_n46ZM

Note the the difference between the hot sticky weather in Bangkok and the snow in Chesterfield!

 

[ailsa]

Very interesting and not what I'm used to seeing! I don't fancy the look of the 'corridor connections' myself I did hear somewhere that the Thai railway was planning on refurbishing their '158s' but I gather the political situation isn't too good there at the moment.

 

[yorksrob]

Wow - I love the idea of slam-door 158's

I notice the middle carriage only seems to have one door on each side - which seems a bit dangerous, and must cause a bit of a crush.

Has to be said, ours seem a lot cleaner.

 

[Dennis]

Thanks for sharing - interesting.

 

[The 158 Man]

Great vid.

It's nice to see '158s' in (what's left of) their exclusive* version of Regional Railways livery!







* Yes I know there were a handful of 156s that also recieved the same colour scheme but they were never quite as good!

 

[Crossforth]

Cool, I knew they existed but never really seen videos of them in action.

I much prefer our 158s, those look neglected and so does their infrastructure to be honest

 

[turbo mick]

ive been on the 158s in thailand went to hua hinn from bangkok cost about £10 aircon that worked and a meal they do a hell of a lot of miles the train i was on has a 10hr journey

 

[The 158 Man]

Does anyone know if they have the two-tone horns that ours have? I'm guessing not.