Yeah, the brown and cream 'Skippers' ordered specifically for the South West were a batch of thirteen class 142s (142015 - 027), which subsequently transferred north in the late eighties (Most becoming Heaton's initial allocation of 142s), while the twenty five class 143s later transferred from the North East to South Wales & West during 1992.
The did occasionally work Cleethorpes - Newark Northgate. Not diagrammed, but covering for missing 15x's in the early 1990s. Sleaford do Doncaster as already mentioned was allocated units in the late 1980s. Not sure if they ever made it to Peterborough itself however.
I’ve definitely seen both a 142 and a 144 at Peterborough. I have photographs somewhere.
That was always a strange route to me. A lot of the units on it were allocated from Norwich Crown point, but then they also some of them started thier day in the north, which I recall as a strange working once gave us a 150/2. I am wouldn't be totally surprised if they did make it to Peterborough, just never knew they were diagrammed (but then it was a long time ago) - Definately remember the school kids (1605ish) Sleaford - Doncaster was always a pacer.
Have any ever been to Southampton or Portsmouth for that matter?
This is a myth that won't die, it seems... there is and was no "ban" on Pacers operating on 3rd rail routes, if there had been I'm sure that we'd have reports of sparks flying at Hunts Cross and Bidston regularly.
assume Doncaster > Peterborough via Lincolnshire service
Yes I would think so. 144004 springs to mind on one occasion.
You're right that they never worked in Southern DC-land, though they could have done so if BR had gone down that route. Now that would have been fun to see, 4-car 144s on Uckfield runs, quite the downgrade from a Thumper!
Back in BR days, would the crew have bieng more local as well. so if a these were "Southern" crews they would never have got traction knowledge. I could be wrong by I understand odd workings back in BR days were done by the local crews. So London - Inverness HST would be a Scotrail driver North of Edinburgh.
For decades until May last year there was a regional service from Bristol (and points north/west thereof) to Brighton that has utilised classes 150, 155, 156 and 158 at various times.
I suspect if it did, it would have terminated short. I doubt train crew would have signed it all the way and the depots further away from Bristol would have not had knowledge.
Journeys of around two and a half hours weren't unusual - Middlesbrough to Carlisle, and Carlisle to Barrow-in-Furness spring to mind. In the South West, services such as Cardiff - Taunton were plausible workings as noted previously in this thread, and, in South Wales, Cardiff or Swansea to Fishguard Harbour/Pembroke Dock.
Cleethorpes - Manchester Airport also had them teplace the 158s (if not mentioned already) - rarely luckily....
Two and a half hours is nothing. There were occasions when they worked from Cornwall to south Wales.
Might not have been cleared to Nottingham but they definitely had Nottingham on the roller blinds.
Not sure about Penrith but I had them several times on the 22:22 Newcastle - Darlington in 2019. Sometimes solo, sometimes a pair of them, and once paired with a 158/9z
A general appendix instruction that was disregarded on more than one occasion. A 142 being allocated was quite common, usually the crew would correctly refuse to take it but occasionally neither driver nor guard remembered that they weren’t permitted to take a 142 to Dumfries and did so anyway.
There was in the late 2010s a Sundays only Whitby - Carlisle that often produced a 142. Around 5 hours end to end.
Even worse than that. Some Carlisle to Barrow in Furness services continued to Lancaster, or even Preston....
The roller blinds were a standard item rather than being specific to each class, hence the 307s and 308s having places like Huddersfield and Halifax on the blinds, despite not being able to reach those places without either a heck of a run-up or a heck of a shove!
