Trivia: How close have 153s and 156s ever been to London?

[Whistler40145]

Just read an article online that a Class 156 substituted for a non available Class 158 on a Rochdale to London Euston service in June 2000

 

[Sprinter107]

I recorded plenty of 156s on the Cotswold Line between October 1991 and May 1993, mostly low numbered sets but also 156441, 156452 and 156468. They worked alongside Centro 150s after the 155s departed.

Example at Oxford: https://www.flickr.com/photos/wolvercotewanderer/49139129211

Yes, you're right. 156s were diagrammed for certain services across the Cotswold line at that time. Tyseley hadn't got an allocation then, they were Norwich sets, and they were 156401 - 156429, and 441, 452, and 468 as you quoted.

 

[newtownmgr]

out of interest did 155s ever make it to london?

At least 1 class 155 did a couple of trips between Didcot & Reading in around 1990 following a derailment at Foxhall Jct. The set was working an Oxford-Swindon service originally & diverted into Didcot Parkway & then used to go to Reading. Worked by a Worcester crew as they worked the Swindon - Oxford service as a tie in with work over both Cotswolds routes.

Yes, you're right. 156s were diagrammed for certain services across the Cotswold line at that time. Tyseley hadn't got an allocation then, they were Norwich sets, and they were 156401 - 156429, and 441, 452, and 468 as you quoted.

Had some Cardiff based 156’s on the Cotswolds as well when they were drafted in to cover the 155’s. Most of the 156’s went north to Scotland were they should have gone when the 155’s returned.

 

[jimm]

I recorded plenty of 156s on the Cotswold Line between October 1991 and May 1993, mostly low numbered sets but also 156441, 156452 and 156468. They worked alongside Centro 150s after the 155s departed.

Example at Oxford: https://www.flickr.com/photos/wolvercotewanderer/49139129211

Martin Loader, whose picture I linked to above, has been photographing the Cotswold Line since the early 1980s. So if he writes "this brought the rare sight of a Class 156 unit to the Cotswold Line" in his caption on the picture I linked to, I think I'll take that, backed up by my own experiences visiting relatives locally in the period before the Turbos took over and travelling on a 150 every time, as a decent guide to the actual frequency of the use of 156s on the route and stand by my description of their extreme rarity.

By contrast, Martin's Class 150, 155, 165 and 166 pages have umpteen pictures of those types at locations on the line in the 1990s - and 155s on those Cheltenham-Swindon-Didcot-Oxford services mentioned above.

Martin Loader's Railway Photography - Class 155

British Leyland built two car 'Sprinter' units, now largely converted to single car 153s

hondawanderer.com

I don't doubt Tyseley would turn out a 156 on occasion if one was spare and they were short of a 150 but the 156s were never anything like regular performers on the Cotswold Line, or the Birmingham-Worcester-Hereford services, which interworked with the Cotswold Line during the period of Regional Railways operation. From the Railways in Worcestershire website:

In the 1990s Norwich and Tyseley based units appeared from time to time on services from Birmingham to Worcester and Hereford. (my italics)

Railways in Worcestershire

Class 156

www.miac.org.uk

 

[Sprinter107]

Martin Loader, whose picture I linked to above, has been photographing the Cotswold Line since the early 1980s. So if he writes "this brought the rare sight of a Class 156 unit to the Cotswold Line" in his caption on the picture I linked to, I think I'll take that, backed up by my own experiences visiting relatives locally in the period before the Turbos took over and travelling on a 150 every time, as a decent guide to the actual frequency of the use of 156s on the route and stand by my description of their extreme rarity.

By contrast, Martin's Class 150, 155, 165 and 166 pages have umpteen pictures of those types at locations on the line in the 1990s - and 155s on those Cheltenham-Swindon-Didcot-Oxford services mentioned above.

Martin Loader's Railway Photography - Class 155

British Leyland built two car 'Sprinter' units, now largely converted to single car 153s

hondawanderer.com

I don't doubt Tyseley would turn out a 156 on occasion if one was spare and they were short of a 150 but the 156s were never anything like regular performers on the Cotswold Line, or the Birmingham-Worcester-Hereford services, which interworked with the Cotswold Line during the period of Regional Railways operation. From the Railways in Worcestershire website:

Railways in Worcestershire

Class 156

www.miac.org.uk

They were disgrammed. We worked them. So we will have to agree to disagree.

 

[jimm]

So where are all the photographs of 156s, if they were as ten a penny on the Cotswold Line as you would have us believe?

Did the photographers turn their backs every time one appeared?

It's not just Martin Loader's website. There are no pictures of 156s in any of the many books about the Cotswold Line that I own, but there are plenty of images of GWR diesel railcars, first generation BR dmus, 150s, 155s, 165s and 166s.

The Cotswold Line Promotion Group newsletters for the entire period between the departure of the 155s and the arrival of the Turbos contain just one picture of a 156 - 156411 passing Combe on its way to Great Malvern on January 27, 1992 - exactly equalling the number of pictures published in those nine newsletters of a 158 - 158714 at Worcester for a gauging run to Oxford on September 10, 1990 - and a Class 153 - 153320 seen at Moreton-in-Marsh standing in for a failed HST on a morning Hereford-Paddington service in September 1992 as far as Oxford.

Next you'll be telling us the 153s were an everyday sight at Oxford as well.

 

[LowLevel]

So where are all the photographs of 156s, if they were as ten a penny on the Cotswold Line as you would have us believe?

Did the photographers turn their backs every time one appeared?

It's not just Martin Loader's website. There are no pictures of 156s in any of the many books about the Cotswold Line that I own, but there are plenty of images of GWR diesel railcars, first generation BR dmus, 150s, 155s, 165s and 166s.

The Cotswold Line Promotion Group newsletters for the entire period between the departure of the 155s and the arrival of the Turbos contain just one picture of a 156 - 156411 passing Combe on its way to Great Malvern on January 27, 1992 - exactly equalling the number of pictures published in those nine newsletters of a 158 - 158714 at Worcester for a gauging run to Oxford on September 10, 1990 - and a Class 153 - 153320 seen at Moreton-in-Marsh standing in for a failed HST on a morning Hereford-Paddington service in September 1992 as far as Oxford.

Next you'll be telling us the 153s were an everyday sight at Oxford as well.

I've seen several photos of 156s at Oxford.

It is a bit of a stupid Wikipedia style argument really.

Train driver from the depot who worked the trains who has been there for 30 odd years: "We did this with X traction".

Railway enthusiast: "Pictures or you're lying"

I missed the end of my post off which was... bar a small hard-core of people I don't believe there was a huge number of people particularly interested in taking photos of Sprinters of any description!

I've just checked one of my "niche interest groups" relating the 15x units on Facebook and a quick search immediately threw up a photo of 156409 at Oxford on 15/05/1993

 

[Sprinter107]

So where are all the photographs of 156s, if they were as ten a penny on the Cotswold Line as you would have us believe?

Did the photographers turn their backs every time one appeared?

It's not just Martin Loader's website. There are no pictures of 156s in any of the many books about the Cotswold Line that I own, but there are plenty of images of GWR diesel railcars, first generation BR dmus, 150s, 155s, 165s and 166s.

The Cotswold Line Promotion Group newsletters for the entire period between the departure of the 155s and the arrival of the Turbos contain just one picture of a 156 - 156411 passing Combe on its way to Great Malvern on January 27, 1992 - exactly equalling the number of pictures published in those nine newsletters of a 158 - 158714 at Worcester for a gauging run to Oxford on September 10, 1990 - and a Class 153 - 153320 seen at Moreton-in-Marsh standing in for a failed HST on a morning Hereford-Paddington service in September 1992 as far as Oxford.

Next you'll be telling us the 153s were an everyday sight at Oxford as well.

Yes, 153s did work to Oxford too. There was a mid afternoon turn for a short while. As I said previously, we will have to agree to disagree on this one.

 

[jimm]

I've seen several photos of 156s at Oxford.

It is a bit of a stupid Wikipedia style argument really.

Train driver from the depot who worked the trains who has been there for 30 odd years: "We did this with X traction".

Railway enthusiast: "Pictures or you're lying"

I missed the end of my post off which was... bar a small hard-core of people I don't believe there was a huge number of people particularly interested in taking photos of Sprinters of any description!

I've just checked one of my "niche interest groups" relating the 15x units on Facebook and a quick search immediately threw up a photo of 156409 at Oxford on 15/05/1993

No one is disputing that 156s worked to Oxford. What I dispute is the idea some people seem to be determined to advance here that they were common as muck, as opposed to having a limited amount of diagrammed work for a limited period of time - a period when Tyseley-based 150s were the backbone of the Cotswold Line services. Or maybe the pictures of those have all been faked and I'm just imagining my own journeys on the line in 150s at that time.

As I already pointed out, Martin Loader's website, which I have referenced above, features photos of all kinds of dmus at locations along the Cotswold Line since the early 1980s - even a Class 210 - so if the 156s were to be seen all the time between 1991 and 1993, he would have photographed them.

 

[CR165022]

I've seen several photos of 156s at Oxford.

It is a bit of a stupid Wikipedia style argument really.

Train driver from the depot who worked the trains who has been there for 30 odd years: "We did this with X traction".

Railway enthusiast: "Pictures or you're lying"

I missed the end of my post off which was... bar a small hard-core of people I don't believe there was a huge number of people particularly interested in taking photos of Sprinters of any description!

I've just checked one of my "niche interest groups" relating the 15x units on Facebook and a quick search immediately threw up a photo of 156409 at Oxford on 15/05/1993

There's also been pics of 156s heading through Oxford recently after a refurb for Northern

 

[43096]

There's also been pics of 156s heading through Oxford recently after a refurb for Northern

I don't believe it happened unless 'jimm' says so!

 

[7 Ingleborough]

I regularly travelled to and from Charlbury, or occasionally Hanborough from 1985 to 1989. My first ride in a 156 was from Charlbury to Oxford early on a Monday morning on my return to Reading after a long weekend at the family home. Indeed it was my first ride on a Sprinter of any class. I got a long weekend once a month and in the pre-turbo days rode on 150s, 155s and 156s on that route. In July 1989 I finally got posted back to my home turf and lived in Witney, and regularly caught trains from the same two stations on a more regular basis. Tyseley based 150s were the usual fare initially if boarding at Hanborough. But certainly 156s were around on that route in the late 1980s.

I thought one of the first 156s worked to Marylebone where BRB people inspected it?

 

[Sprinter107]

From my notes, some of the temporary 156s at Cardiff worked across the Cotswold Line along with 150/2s from Cardiff, deputising for withdrawn 155s, as a previous poster has said, but they got their own diagrams across their from the winter 1991 timetable. That continued until the Turbo takeover, which left just a couple of stopping trains which were worked with Sprinters, which of course were eventually taken over by Turbos too.

I regularly travelled to and from Charlbury, or occasionally Hanborough from 1985 to 1989. My first ride in a 156 was from Charlbury to Oxford early on a Monday morning on my return to Reading after a long weekend at the family home. Indeed it was my first ride on a Sprinter of any class. I got a long weekend once a month and in the pre-turbo days rode on 150s, 155s and 156s on that route. In July 1989 I finally got posted back to my home turf and lived in Witney, and regularly caught trains from the same two stations on a more regular basis. Tyseley based 150s were the usual fare initially if boarding at Hanborough. But certainly 156s were around on that route in the late 198