The 150’s have always reminded me, to an extent, of the class 105 Cravens power cars with those wide window pillars, fumes and rattles. Of course with these you don’t have any chance to take refuge in a trailer car.
But they largely get on with their work, and, in general, ride better than a Pacer. The big problem is, of course, that all the 1980’s units are aging at the same time, and all should have been replaced a good ten or more years ago.
I will grit my teeth and endure them until any replacements can be introduced in the years to come.
I have had the odd ride on a 105 in the mid 1980s, but by then they were not common on the Southport line. Class 101s, 104s, 108s and the suburban units were more usual.
Cravens did build some DMUs for Perth, Australia which I think were based on 105s. They had small windows, so probably even more claustrophobic than a 150. Their Wilson gearboxes were replaced by Voith in the early 1970s and some of them later gained Mercedes Benz engines in place of AEC. One is shown here at 5:54: