First north western class 158s

[hstmatt]

Hello
Just wodering when i was at broodgreen station in 2003-4 i always used to see first north western liveried 158s passing through non stop saying backpool north on the desterntion boards.I even went on one, once when it stopped at broodgreen.:Am just wondering why dont you see class 158s operated by northern rail out of limes street now its mostly class 156s thanks.

 

[GNERman]

because 158's are now based at Neville Hill, and primarily used on services out of Leeds or in Yorkshire (eg York-Blackpool, Leeds-Nottingham, Leeds-Carlisle, Sheffield-Hull etc...)

the class 156 fleet is based at Heaton and Newton Heath, none at Neville Hill, and the core fleet works on ex FNW routes, eg in and out of Manchester, Liverpool, Preston...

 

[northernrailer]

On the East side we have the 158s, and the West side have the 156s - Merseyrail fund Northern to run the 156s out of Lime Street like years ago Merseyrail funded so many class 142s and had them painted in the Merseyrail livery.

158752 - 158758 were the only class 158s First North West had and run them on Rochdale - London workings at one time and then on the Manchester - North Wales services, and after the North Wales services went over to Wales and Borders and later Arriva, FNW were left with the 7x 158s and ran them on Liverpool - Man Air, and Man Air / Liverpool - Blackpool services until Northern Rail was formed, then 158752 - 158759 transferred to Neville Hill, where all the Neville Hill 156s transferred to Newton Heath and the 150s that Neville Hill had went to Newton Heath. Also the 153s that Newton Heath had went over to Neville Hill.

Basically it boils down to depots having maximum pools of the same units, instead of split pools across 2 or 3 depots.

Newton Heath have: 142, 150/1, 150/2, 156
Neville Hill have: 144, 153, 155 & 158
Heaton Have: 142, 156

 

[sprinterguy]

158752-759 were the North West Trains 158s. They have now become Northerns' 3-car 158 units, used on cross-Pennine services.

 

[507 001]

I miss the 158's on these services, it was always a relief to see one coming round huyton junction instead of a 142. We even had a silver and red metro liveried one hanging around for a while, i've got a picture of it somewhere.
Its broad green btw.