The Class 150 Sprinter 40 years on

It’s 40 years since the first Class 150 Sprinter appeared. Nearly all survive in traffic, with many derivatives also in use. But it’s inevitable that inroads will be made on them soon. Pip Dunn looks at ‘Sprinterisation’.

In the early 1980s, British Rail was fast approaching turmoil, after years of underinvestment left it still relying on elderly and outdated trains with vacuum brakes and steam heating.

Its fleet of diesel multiple units (DMUs) was ageing. Some dated from the mid-1950s and there was a myriad of types in use.

At the start of the decade, BR still had Classes 100, ‘101’, ‘104’, ‘105’, ‘107’, ‘108’, ‘110’, ‘114’, ‘115’, ‘116’, ‘117’, ‘118’, ‘119’, ‘120’, ‘121’, ‘122’, ‘123’ and ‘124’ in use.

Some, such as the ‘123s’ and ‘124s’, were working quite long-distance jobs. They were often underpowered and unreliable, and lacked refinement.

Most passengers expected more. Others just put up with them. Some were just thankful they still had a railway to travel on, and it’s certainly true that DMUs saved many lines that otherwise could have been axed.

Some routes, such as Aberdeen to Inverness, Edinburgh to Dundee, and later Manchester to Hull, were switched back to locomotive haulage, such was the concern over the reliability and the passenger experience of these first-generation units with their noisy underfloor engines.

BR needed to replace these trains, cost-effectively. It had a fraction under 3,000 individual DMU vehicles to replace (not including the Southern Region diesel-electric multiple units, DEMUs), and it would be a slow process, as some lasted in use right into the early 2000s.

In 1978, the first of a number of trial railbuses was introduced - LEV1, which used a Leyland National bus body on a four-wheel freight wagon chassis.

Railbuses had been tried in the 1950s and 1960s. But while they offered a more cost-effective way to operate a branch line than a steam locomotive and a coach or two, the Beeching report removed many of the lines where they were used.

Railbuses were also uncomfortable and did not ride well - hardly enough to woo passengers, especially when car ownership was on the rise.

After LEV1 (and similar LEV2 and R3) came the Class 140 trial two-car railbus in 1981, which again used bus bodies on wagon chassis. This would eventually give rise to the Class 141 and later the Class 142-144 Pacer railbuses which emerged in 1985.

But as well as Railbuses, BR was looking at conventional DMU replacements. Another trial diesel unit design was the Class 210 DEMU, two of which were constructed in the early 1980s.

210001/002 were built in 1982 and based on a Class 317 EMU body. The former was a four-car unit with a single Paxman 6RP200L engine of 1,125hp, and the latter a three-car with an MTU 12V396 engine rated at 1,140hp. Both had their engines fitted behind the driving cab at one end.

But replacing the DMUs on commuter routes and regional lines needed a new type of DMU with the conventional set-up of a small engine under the body.

In March 1983, a contract was signed with BREL to build two new three-car DMUs intended as high-density commuter trains, with two sets of doors per coach at one-third and two-third intervals on the bodyside. This would enable mass boarding and alighting more quickly than conventional doors at the end of coaches, as was the case with locomotive-hauled coaches. The new units would be branded Sprinter, to highlight their speed out of the blocks!

BREL formally handed over 150001 to British Rail on June 8 1984. It was followed by 150002 three months later.

Both units had an engine for each car, so were DMS-MS-DMS (Driving Motor Standard and Motor Standard) in formation, but they differed in engine types - 150001 had Cummins NT855R5 engines rated at 285hp, while 150002 had Rolls-Royce Eagle C6280HR engines rated at 280hp, so the total power was 855hp and 840hp respectively.

Both had a 75mph top speed. The units were diesel hydraulic with Voith and SCG transmissions respectively.

They were essentially allocated to the Derby Railway Technical Centre (RTC) and sent to various locations for trials, mostly in the Derby area with the Matlock branch a favourite testing ground.

On November 19 1984, 150001 went into passenger use on the Matlock branch. The Sprinter revolution had officially started.

The unit gained impressive reviews for the key stakeholders. And from a passenger’s point of view, the new train’s interior was an improvement.

With BR seemingly having not learned from the errors of the pilot scheme plan of 1955, where mass orders for diesel locomotives were placed before prototypes had been tested, on February 10 1984 an order for 50 two-car Class 150/1 sets was placed, followed on January 15 1985 by another order for 85 two-car Class 150/2s and 70 Class 155 Leyland two-car sets. October 30 1985 then brought an order for 114 two-car Class 156 SuperSprinters.

In total, the order for these 568 vehicles came in at £149.5 million (just £481m in today’s money, which highlights how expensive new trains are these days).

Production Class 150s

The Class 150/1s had Cummins engines and were to be based at Derby Etches Park to work local trains across the East and West Midlands.

Lines such as Derby to Crewe, Lincoln, Birmingham and Matlock as well as to Skegness, Cleethorpes, Sheffield and other destinations would be handed over, allowing the elderly Class 120 Swindon units to be withdrawn or (in the case of the better examples) sent elsewhere.

The 85 two-car units would be fitted with corridor connections to allow four-car and six-car operation with one guard. These were destined for Newton Heath, Neville Hill, Cardiff Canton and Haymarket for use in the North West, Yorkshire, South Wales and Scotland’s Central Belt.

The Newton Heath Class 150/2s were initially intended to replace locomotive-hauled trains on the trans-Pennine line from Holyhead to Scarborough, and six-car sets were used.

Sadly for BR, these duties were realistically too long for them, and their commuter train layout was not popular as the doors would open at each station and bring a blast of cold air in the winter months.

Newcastle-Liverpool trains would initially continue to be operated by Class 45s or ‘47s’ with Mk 2 coaches, but soon the ‘150/2s’ were removed and redeployed elsewhere, resulting in more locomotive-haulage returning to the route until new Class 158s could take over in 1991.

The Scottish units (150255/257/259/283-285) were new to Haymarket from June 1987 and worked local trains from Edinburgh to Bathgate, Dunblane, Dunbar and around the Fife Circle.

Class 150s went far and wide for trials - 150001 made it to Oban on January 3 1986 on a private train, but on February 19 1986 it also worked the 0820 Glasgow Queen Street-Oban and 1300 return. It covered these trains the following day as well.

Later, 150257 visited Fort William and Mallaig in September 1987, while 150285 reached Kyle of Lochalsh on April 30 1988 as BR sought to evaluate the new trains as possible replacements for locomotive haulage. While the Class 150s were not ideal for these routes, later-build Class 156s would be.

In the mid-1980s, locomotives and coaches still worked on routes such as Birmingham to Norwich, Bristol to Penzance, Cardiff to Portsmouth, Edinburgh to Dundee and Aberdeen, all the lines out of Inverness, the North Wales coast, Trans-Pennine, and even some branches such as Exeter to Barnstaple.

But locomotive haulage was costly and inefficient. It required infrastructure such as run round loops, and staff to couple and uncouple locomotives.

Locomotives were also heavier and so caused more track wear, although it wasn’t all bad news - they could be used on a passenger train one day, then a freight train the next. Or at night they could haul parcels and Sleeper trains, work a DMU couldn’t do.

But locomotives also generally only had one engine, so if they failed, that was it. Many DMUs had an engine under each car, so could usually ‘limp’ home if they suffered an engine failure… or at least clear the running line.

Inside the Sprinters were 70 seats in one car and 68 in the other, which also had a basic toilet. They didn’t have buffets - but not many first-generation DMUs did either.

The new units had BSI couplers, which meant they could work with both other Sprinter types and the Class 141-144 railbuses as well.

They were basic, but far more modern than the units they replaced - and they had a few more seats. They didn’t have First Class seating, but not that this was seen as a major issue.

Class 155/156s

BR had a policy of not putting all of its eggs in one basket when it came to procuring rolling stock, with locomotives and multiple units built by a variety of manufacturers. This was partly political, but also gave security of supply.

With that in mind, BR sought Sprinter DMUs from different manufacturers - the Class 155 from Leyland Bus and the Class 156 from Metro-Cammell. Both would be two-car designs and marketed as SuperSprinters.

These were intended for longer-distance cross-country routes, and so would have their doors at the end of the carriages to offer a better passenger experience. They would also have the Cummins engines.

The initial 35 Class 155s were to be based at Cardiff, to allow replacement of locomotive haulage on routes such as Cardiff-Bristol-Portsmouth/Weymouth as well as on the Cardiff to Crewe line and others in South Wales, Somerset, Devon, and into Cornwall.

The 114 Class 156s would be based initially at Haymarket, Corkerhill and Inverness in Scotland, as well as Newton Heath and Neville Hill in the north of England and Norwich in the east.

Highland units would replace Class 37s on the lines north of Inverness and to Aberdeen.

The Haymarket units would take over from push-pull Class 47s on the Edinburgh-Glasgow Queen Street route, as well as working to Perth, Dundee, Aberdeen and other lines.

Corkerhill ‘156s’ would run on the West Highland Line, and from Glasgow Central to Stranraer and Carlisle.

It was April 16 1987 when 155301 appeared from Leyland’s Workington plant and went to the RTC at Derby for testing. After weeks of trials, it was allocated to Cardiff Canton from that October.

Not long afterwards, in November, the first Class 156 (156401) emerged from Metro-Cammell’s Washwood Heath facility in Birmingham.

It was officially allocated to Norwich Crown Point in February 1988, and would be followed by 28 units as this fleet would replace Class 31s on cross-country turns to Birmingham and the North West, as well as being used on East Anglian local trains. It was later joined by 156402-429/486.

May 1988 was a pivotal moment for BR’s Provincial sector, as it dispensed with Class 31s on the Norwich-Birmingham route, Class 33s on the Cardiff-Portsmouth line, and Class 50s on local trains in Devon and Cornwall. As more Class 155s (and especially Class 156s) were delivered, other locomotive-hauled operations switched to the new trains.

In January 1989, the West Highland lines moved over to Class 156s. Many said they would be unsuitable and would never last, but 35 years later they are still going strong to Oban, Fort William and Mallaig.

The first 35 Class 155s were allocated to Cardiff. A second order for seven was based at Neville Hill, while 156430-442 went to Heaton, 156443/501-514 to Corkerhill, 156444/462/475/ 476/479-484/487-491/497/498 to Neville Hill, 156445-449/451/452/454/455/457/458/461/ 477/478/485/496-496 to Inverness, and 156450/453/456/459/460/499/500 Haymarket.

156463-474 were all sent initially to Cardiff Canton, but these units had not been planned for and were effectively on loan for a few months.

However, they helped solve an embarrassing problem for BR.

In November 1988, a Class 155 had left Portsmouth Harbour with its doors open and the fleet was ‘grounded’ for inspection. While the problem was resolved, a long-term solution was to reintroduce a locomotive-hauled turn in Cornwall.

BR also opted to divert some new Class 156s destined for the North East and Scotland directly to Cardiff, to reduce the impact of the ‘155’ fleet being unavailable.

Once the ‘155’ door issue had been resolved, those Canton ‘156s’ could return to their intended routes, allowing BR to implement the next phases of its replacement programme.

While the introduction of Class 156s on the West Highland Line went ahead as planned in January 1989, the same date had been set aside for them to take over on lines north of Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh and Wick/Thurso.

That was now delayed - and then again when the bridge carrying the railway over the River Ness was washed away in February 1989.

In April/May 1989, the Inverness Class 156s were moved by road to a temporary depot at Muir of Ord, and initially began running from Dingwall. The new bridge was opened in May 1990.

Class 156 deliveries continued until 156514 was accepted at Corkerhill on September 28 1989. The last 14 units were finished in Strathclyde Passenger Transport Executive orange and black livery.

Class 156s have generally stayed pretty much on the routes for which they were intended, although later deliveries of ‘158s’ and then the privatisation designs have led to them being progressively redeployed. The fact that they are still common in Scotland and the north of England speaks volumes about how they have stood the test of time.

Class 158 Express units

The final stage of the Sprinter Revolution was the design and construction of the Class 158s (and their Class 159 derivatives), built by BREL at Derby Litchurch Lane in 1989-92.

These were intended to replace remaining locomotive-hauled trains on longer-distance routes in Scotland. They would do likewise on the trans-Pennine route and other lines across the north of England and in Wales and the West Country.

However, they would also allow earlier Sprinters to be redeployed, to in turn eliminate the need for first-generation DMUs that were still in use.

A start was made in May 1989 on construction of the first of 172 Class 158/0s (158701), and the two-car unit was unveiled in August 1989. It was allocated to Haymarket from January 1990 and was joined by 158702-733/743/744.

The next batch (158734-742/745-747/753/ 786788/789/791/798-814) was initially sent to Heaton in late 1990, while 158763/764/768/ 773-775/777-785/794-796/843-862 went to Norwich Crown Point and 158748-752/ 754-762/765-767/769-772/776/787/790/792/ 793/797/815-842/863-872 to Cardiff, the last being delivered in February 1992. All these units were two-car sets except 158798-814, which were three-car sets.

In between, ten Class 158/9s were built for the West Yorkshire PTE in early 1991, and delivered in WYPTE maroon livery and numbered 158901-910.

NSE Class 159s

While Sprinters of Classes 150, ‘155’, ‘156’ and ‘158’ had so far been built for the Provincial (later Regional Railways), sector, BR also needed to replace locomotive haulage on some Network SouthEast operations.

Two core routes were still in the hands of Class 47s and ‘50s’: the Thames and Chiltern lines out of Paddington to Oxford, Banbury, Newbury and Westbury; and the West of England line from Waterloo to Exeter St Davids via Salisbury and Yeovil Junction.

For the former, a fleet of Class 165 and ‘166’ Networker Turbo units was ordered (they would also replace first-generation DMUs on routes such as Reading to Gatwick Airport and Reading to Basingstoke).

To replace the Waterloo locomotive-hauled trains, a fleet of 22 three-car Class 159s was ordered. These were Class 158s in all but number, and also appeared in NSE’s distinctive red, white and blue livery.

Numbered 159001-022, they would be based at a new purpose-built depot at Salisbury. Initially they were to have been numbered 158873-894, with a 23rd unit (which would have been 158895 or 159023) initially planned. But that was cancelled despite both bodyshells being constructed.

When 159022 was accepted by NSE on May 8 1993, construction of the Sprinter family had finally ended. By this time, 1,035 vehicles had been built in under a decade.

This was alongside the cheaper (but less comfortable) Railbuses of Classes 141-144, which accounted for 338 new vehicles. Together, this showed massive investment by BR throughout the 1980s.

Redeployment and changes

The Sprinters soon settled down to their daily duties, although the use of three two-car Class 150/2s on the trans-Pennine line was shelved as they really weren’t the right train for long distances.

However, the Class 155s allowed a slight recast of operations.

Some routes had been unsuccessfully handed over to Railbuses in the mid-1980s, notably in Devon and Cornwall where the Class 142s (marketed as ‘Skippers’) were found to be unsuitable for some branch lines such as those to Looe and Newquay. These turns were handed over to Class 150s.

Class 156s used on the Edinburgh-Glasgow Queen Street line were replaced by ‘158s’, as had always been planned (the initial use of ‘156s’ was to allow earlier replacement of push-pull locomotive-worked sets).

Class 158s then replaced Class 47s on the trans-Pennine line from January 1991. As more were delivered, they eliminated older DMUs on many cross-country routes.

For Network SouthEast, elimination of locomotive haulage on the Exeter St Davids to Waterloo line had been planned for 1991, but delays in the Class 159s entering traffic caused problems.

Class 50 overhauls had stopped in March 1988, with the view that units would replace them three years later.

However, with no ‘159s’ ready, and the Class 50s demonstrating poor reliability, ex-Scottish Region Class 47/7s were drafted in from the spring of 1991. Class 50 operation reduced dramatically in the second half of the year, with the last turns in March 1992.

The ‘47/7s’, supplemented by ‘47/4s’, were only intended as a stopgap measure, and were also far from reliable - so much so that in 1992, tired Railfreight Distribution Class 47/0s and ‘47/3s’ without train heating were used. However, these too were unreliable, with underpowered Class 33s often needed to replace them.

The first Class 159s entered traffic on July 21 1992, but the full fleet was not in use for another year.

The Class 153s

A major change came in 1990, when it was decided that some single-car DMUs were needed for rural and branch lines where passenger loadings were low. The Class 121/122 ‘bubble car’ single-car DMUs required replacement.

The plan was to take the first 35 Class 155s and split them, fitting an extra cab to each vehicle to allow them to run as single cars.

As the ‘155s’ only had a toilet in the DMSL (Driving Motor Standard Lavatory, 523xx) vehicle, each DMS (573xx) vehicle had a toilet fitted. These would be Class 153s.

They could still run as two-car trains, and the single cars could also be used to strengthen two-car sets. The seven West Yorkshire PTE ‘155s’ would stay as two-car sets - and indeed remain so today with Northern.

Conversion work was carried out by Hunslet Barclay at its Kilmarnock works in 1991-92, with 153354 (using vehicle 57304 from 155304) the first vehicle outshopped in June 1991 and 153383 the last in November 1992. The 52301-35 vehicles became 153301-335 and 57301-335 became 153351-385.

The ‘153s’ were initially allocated to Tyseley, Cardiff Canton, Newton Heath, Plymouth Laira and Heaton, and some soon moved to Norwich Crown Point.

They would work local branch lines in the Cardiff Valleys, Devon and Cornwall, and East Anglia, as well as strengthening two-car commuter trains in the West Midlands, North West and North East.

Livery changes

While 150101-150 were delivered in a mainly light blue livery, from the ‘150/2s’ new Provincial colours were applied with a darker blue upper bodyside. The first ‘150/2s’ did not have full yellow front ends, just a yellow panel in the corridor connection, but this was short-lived.

Class 155/156s were delivered in the same Provincial livery, while the ‘158s’ carried a new ‘Express’ livery with a dark grey around the windows, two blue stripes below it, and a light grey solebar.

This was later applied to several Class 156s, while some ‘150s’ appeared in Regional Railways’ Merseyrail livery - predominantly yellow, a RR North Western livery with red and grey lines. Centro green was adopted on many ‘150s’ in the West Midlands.

Later, most units were painted in RR’s mainly blue livery, while several appeared with advertising wraps.

By the mid-1990s, the Sprinters were proving themselves very capable trains. The next story in their lives was to be political, and that was privatisation…

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