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Your favourite hybrid / combos / unusual mixed formations

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Bringback309s

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Having been reminiscing on the Progress or regression thread, I thought I'd start a new one (mainly for us older ones who remember the slam door days well!). With so many units now in very fixed formations and not interoperable with other units, the days of seeing a "hybrid" or two different classes working together are virtually extinct. (Except pacers and sprinters I guess.) I for one used to love seeing hybrid DMU's which were really common, especially the variation of liveries. Or a blue/grey carriage inserted into an NSE liveried unit, or as I remember, a 309 paired with a 302. I also used to enjoy getting on a rake of Mk2's and sniffing out the odd side corridor Mk1 right at the back beyond the guards van that no-one knew was there so you'd get a whole compartment to yourself. What were your favorites, and most memorable, and unusual? Please share links to pics as well if you can!
 
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Nick Ashwell

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I've been quite enamored over the last few years by the 153/150 hybrids that have been running around instead of taking the whole 150 out of service.
 

61653 HTAFC

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Back in the early 1990s there was a regular combination of 158+141 on a York-Blackpool run which left Leeds in the evening peak. Always amused me to see people run down the platforms to squeeze on the 158 while there were seats free on the railbus!
 

OliverH68

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Chiltern very occasionally have done 165 + 168/172 combos. Not sure if any are booked in regular working these days but has happened previously, I think the 16:40 ex Marylebone was a 168 + 172 combo for a while.
 

delt1c

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for me it was when the 120's used on the Inverness Aberdeen service were being refurbished, a 101 car was often inserted to cover for a car at works, however for a period a 122 was used, giving the unusual site of a 3 car unit made up of 2 120 cars and a 122. Also remember traveling on Edinburgh to Glasgow via Shotts service in the mid 70's made up of 2 105 power cars and a 101 powercar
 

RichJF

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I always like it when a 377/6 or 377/7 turns up with a 377/3 on the back.
The difference in bodyshells is really obvious & the different door chimes are quite funny if you're near the cabs. It's the 5 car plus the 3 car that's really funky.

I once remember getting a 4 Vep plus 4 Cep as a kid & thinking it was really weird.
 

Mikey C

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Back in the early 1990s there was a regular combination of 158+141 on a York-Blackpool run which left Leeds in the evening peak. Always amused me to see people run down the platforms to squeeze on the 158 while there were seats free on the railbus!

It always amuses me (and impresses me as well!) when I see these combinations of Sprinters and Pacers. I do recall deliberately choosing a 156 rather than the attached 158 for the novelty factor!

I imagine it's less common now, but on long distance cross border European trips it was always fun to see the carriages from several countries attached together, and you could really notice the varying standards inside too...
 

Bletchleyite

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I imagine it's less common now, but on long distance cross border European trips it was always fun to see the carriages from several countries attached together, and you could really notice the varying standards inside too...

While it doesn't work with high speed sets, and theirs are just as incompatible as ours are, European railways have long been less fussy about "lash-ups" than us. A typical DB or SBB IC formation of yore might contain several liveries, and a mix of non-aircon and aircon compartment and open coaches, whereas the UK would typically keep it to Mk1, Mk2, Mk3 *or* Mk4 coaches in a formation (give or take the Sleeper, Mk2s having Mk1 buffets and maybe brakes).

You did used to get a mix of Mk1 and Mk2 in mixed liveries on the North Wales Coast - this had a nice DB feel to it at times - of course now you get Mk3s with a DB liveried lok on the front!
 

JonathanH

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My best experience of this was a morning in November 1992 when I caught a train from Reading to Twyford formed with one carriage of each of five different types of DMU.

54491-53539-51385-59115-55024

Respectively 108/104/117/101/121 running as sets L265 and L408.
 

Bringback309s

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My best experience of this was a morning in November 1992 when I caught a train from Reading to Twyford formed with one carriage of each of five different types of DMU.

54491-53539-51385-59115-55024

Respectively 108/104/117/101/121 running as sets L265 and L408.
Wow would love to see that!
 

Neptune

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Locos towing 1st gen DMU’s was fairly common but I only travelled on one once that I recall.

Back on August Bank Holiday 1980 we were travelling from Morecambe back to Shipley and the 4 car 104 had failed before departure. This gave us time to admire the exhibition train (remember that?)in the station with a 47 on the front. After half an hour or so a class 25, presumably from Carnforth, was attached to the front and took us for a high speed run home. The speedo in the old 104 was showing 90mph at some points. Nowadays of course it would be cancelled.

More importantly Bradford City were at home to Liverpool in the league cup that night and thanks to the lively run and a fast drive to the ground we just made kick off to see our lads beat the mighty Liverpool 1-0.

I also recall in the early 90’s a train from Shipley - Leeds (Ex Morecambe I believe) rolled into platform 5 (now platform 2 of course) with an ex works red parcels 114 on front of a 108.
 

Doomotron

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On the Paignton-Kinsgswear heritage line that I can never remember the name of, several coaches are the trailer cars from 1st-generation DMUs. I found it funny seeing the difference between the different types of Mark 1s. Sometimes they have an observation car on the back as well. A weird combination.

Although I never saw them, there used to be 7-coach 168s (or maybe 8) and 375s that were 5 coaches long that were used on tests.

Albeit not my favourite (in fact, I don't like it at all), the 3-coach 158s with formed of three driving coaches is cool but annoys me a lot.

On the East Kent Railway, the last time I went there was a driving coach from a 4VEP (or other slam-door stock) and a first class Mark 2 air-con, sandwiched between Class 08s. Sadly, we weren't allowed in the Mark 2 because... Errr... Well, they didn't say.
 

Railperf

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Class 89 replacing a HST power car and providing traction power only to the consist was good during the early days of ECML electrification beyond Hitchin to Peterborough.
And Class 91s on a HST set with both loco and surrogate DVT/power car was very lively too.
 

Railperf

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Also fascinating to see a TGV-R single deck set coupled up to a Duplex set.
 

Nymanic

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A tame example by comparison, but I'm pretty certain I saw a 158+142 combo on a Leeds-Carlisle run a few months back.
 

hexagon789

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The 'Clansman', there's a photo in a book of mine, I think 1986, of the train with Mk1, Mk2 pressure vents of different letters, Mk2 air-cons of different letters and a sole Mk3 FO.

Quite unusual for this train as in that year it was nominally all Mk3 except the buffet.
 

Mikey C

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The 455/7 is a permanent hybrid combo, and has been running for 35 years like that!

Some of the 458/5s are a combo too, the ones with 4 458 carriages and the odd one out 460 carriage (with bonded glazing)
 

61653 HTAFC

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It always amuses me (and impresses me as well!) when I see these combinations of Sprinters and Pacers. I do recall deliberately choosing a 156 rather than the attached 158 for the novelty factor!

I imagine it's less common now, but on long distance cross border European trips it was always fun to see the carriages from several countries attached together, and you could really notice the varying standards inside too...
There was also the hybrid sets formed of a 156 DMS and a 158 DMSL (or vice-versa) in the early Sprinter days, as the tread brakes of the 156s coped better in autumn than the 158s which have disc brakes.
 

Neptune

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There was also the hybrid sets formed of a 156 DMS and a 158 DMSL (or vice-versa) in the early Sprinter days, as the tread brakes of the 156s coped better in autumn than the 158s which have disc brakes.
Created by Neville Hill and numbered 158601-603 & 158651-653 or something like that.

There were plans to do the same to the WY 155’s with 158/9’s but this never happened in the end.
 

61653 HTAFC

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Created by Neville Hill and numbered 158601-603 & 158651-653 or something like that.

There were plans to do the same to the WY 155’s with 158/9’s but this never happened in the end.
A good thing the 157s never came to be then, leaving the 6xx number range free!
 

Bringback309s

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Some GE ones - The DC 504 driving car in a 302 on the LTS - https://flickr.com/photos/davidwf2009/47121592151/
309 working with a 302 - this did happen in public service once that I travelled on during snow - https://flickr.com/photos/robertcwp/4448606926/in/photolist-7M7gRq
The intercity training unit was a 305 at one end and a 302 at the other - https://flickr.com/photos/[email protected]

One of my favourite full time hybrids was the small number of 305s that got a 302 trailer followed by a refurb with the low back seating replaced with NSE blue high back seats - see around 2 mins into this
 
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TT-ONR-NRN

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The 455/7 is a permanent hybrid combo, and has been running for 35 years like that!

Some of the 458/5s are a combo too, the ones with 4 458 carriages and the odd one out 460 carriage (with bonded glazing)
It always annoys me why the make up of the 458/5s carriagewise is like 458 460 458 458 458. Why isn’t the 460 in the middle??
 

randyrippley

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Locos towing 1st gen DMU’s was fairly common but I only travelled on one once that I recall.

Back on August Bank Holiday 1980 we were travelling from Morecambe back to Shipley and the 4 car 104 had failed before departure. This gave us time to admire the exhibition train (remember that?)in the station with a 47 on the front. After half an hour or so a class 25, presumably from Carnforth, was attached to the front and took us for a high speed run home. The speedo in the old 104 was showing 90mph at some points. Nowadays of course it would be cancelled.

More importantly Bradford City were at home to Liverpool in the league cup that night and thanks to the lively run and a fast drive to the ground we just made kick off to see our lads beat the mighty Liverpool 1-0.

I also recall in the early 90’s a train from Shipley - Leeds (Ex Morecambe I believe) rolled into platform 5 (now platform 2 of course) with an ex works red parcels 114 on front of a 108.

The 25 may have come from the ICI Trimpell works at Middleton -that was still getting chemical tanks in 1980
 

43096

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It always annoys me why the make up of the 458/5s carriagewise is like 458 460 458 458 458. Why isn’t the 460 in the middle??
It is so that the wheelchair spaces and PRM toilet are always in the centre of the unit. So they are always car 3 of a 5 car and cars 3 and 8 of a 10-car, which helps platform working and dispatch times.
 

TT-ONR-NRN

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It is so that the wheelchair spaces and PRM toilet are always in the centre of the unit. So they are always car 3 of a 5 car and cars 3 and 8 of a 10-car, which helps platform working and dispatch times.
Ahhh that explains it! Thank you! :)
 

Bevan Price

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Trans Pennine dmu with one power car replaced by one from a Class 101 or 104 set - not an everyday event, but not uncommon when they were getting short of complete, serviceable Trans Pennine sets,
From memory, there was no passenger access between the 101 power coach and the rest of the train, due to some incompatibility of their corridor connections.

And, in the early days of conversion from steam to diesel, Western Region Warships piloted steam locos (e.g. Castle or Hall) over the South Devon banks between Plymouth & Newton Abbot. At that time, WR had a strange practice that the "train engine" was (almost) always located in front of an "assisting engine" - even though that meant an additional shunting movement when the assisting loco was no longer needed.
 

theblackwatch

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My best experience of this was a morning in November 1992 when I caught a train from Reading to Twyford formed with one carriage of each of five different types of DMU.

54491-53539-51385-59115-55024

Respectively 108/104/117/101/121 running as sets L265 and L408.

That is a fantastic DMU formation which typifies the rundown of the first generation DMUs. From the mid/late 1980s, hybrid sets became more and more common as time went on, although even before then, there were a few 'oddball' sets such as the 100/105 survivor in Manchester (53355/53812). Scotland also 'threw' some stuff together after the fire at Ayr in 1984 which created some strange formations. Happy days!
 
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