Pacer

A week or so ago I found myself riding a number of trains in Northern England. Two of these were Pacers. What possibly can be interesting about a boring old commuter train I hear you ask. Nothing much as it turns out other than the fact they are truly abysmal trains. They were introduced in the mid eighties and were abysmal trains back then too. So abysmal in fact that they’ve never seen service in the fashionable southeast region and most of them have spent their lives plying the highly unglamorous routes in Wales, the South West and above all, in Northern England. Initially with British Rail, they have long since worn the colours of the Northern Trains franchise, the poor a’poth of train operating companies. They truly are so bad that I actually enjoyed the journeys I took in them in the same way one might enjoy a trip from Mumbai to Delhi in third class.

A quick history lesson courtesy of Wikipedia: The Class 140, 141, 142, 143 and 144 diesel multiple units were given the generic name “Pacer’. Built between 1980 and 1987, Pacers were basically Leyland buses plonked on top of a four wheel freight wagon under frame. They were deliberately designed on the cheap as a stopgap measure to replace ageing rolling stock and were only supposed to last twenty years at the most. Each carriage runs on four wheels set on two axels rather than the usual two sets of four wheel bogies which means the 165 Pacer trains built suffer from excessive squeal when cornering. They also suffer from a bumpy ride and earned the nickname ‘nodding donkeys’ and having now ridden a couple, I can state it is not a name that is unwarranted. The bus theme was carried through to the fittings. Bi-fold doors are still the portal of choice for the Pacer passenger and even the bench seating was the same as what you would have found on the Number 42 bus to Kirkburton. Whilst most sets have had a bit of an upgrade, bench seating still exists on some trains though luckily not the ones I sampled.

My first journey was from Manchester to Huddersfield. To be fair I could have taken the more usual Transpennine Express service and enjoyed their newer, if frequently overcrowded, trains but being a tight fisted Yorkshireman returning to God’s Own County I was particularly taken with Northern’s dirt cheap (£4.50, thanks for asking) advance fare. The journey was just five minutes longer thanks to the Pacer’s 75mph speed limit, a speed it only managed to reach after it had passed through the Standedge Tunnel high in the Pennines and started to go downhill, and the fact it had to stop at places like Mossley and Greenside. These are the sort of places the Pacer was made for. On boarding through the infamous bi-fold door I was greeted with an aroma that seemed familiar. Then I remembered – the 45 year old Antonov I’d flown on in Ukraine six months and many blogs ago smelled similar, that musty scent you often find in museum pieces. The seats that had replaced the original bus benches provided enough knee room for a dwarf with a growth defect but I got a couple to myself so spent a pleasant three quarters of an hour sitting sideways whilst being bounced around and deafened by the occasional squeal from the wheels. The second journey was a couple of days later from Huddersfield to Wakefield Kirkgate. Different seating made it a touch more comfortable and it was definitely less smelly but the rest of the Pacer experience was much the same.

Having said all that, being the geek I am I’m glad I took the journeys. Having passed their sell by dates some ten to fifteen years ago, the Pacers’ days are finally numbered. They will fall foul of the latest accessibility rules by the end of the year and be withdrawn from service. Northern have some brand new Spanish built trains joining the fleet which won’t replace the Pacers directly. Instead they will displace Sprinters, themselves a mere 30 years old, which will be cascaded down the company’s network to the services so unloved that they are currently operated by a 35 year old bus on rails. I hope the National Railway Museum preserves a working example, just so future generations can have a good laugh.