BR Class 122 "Bubble Car" units in Scotland

[Blobrick]

Does anyone know what livery Class 122 Bubble car W55000 was in when it arrived at Ayr depot in February 1967 ?

I suspect it was still in Green with SYWP but would love to have that confirmed.

 

Fingers crossed

 

Bob C

[Steamysandy]

  I can't answer the question posed but I have a story from it's time at Haymarket.

They were scraping the barrel for dmus and almost anything went.So SC55000 was used frequently to make up a set for the morning North Berwick service  which I travelled on. I was known and one of the drivers  mentioned to me that the driving cab was pretty dirty. I had noticed the passenger compartment was pretty grotty too.

So on arrival at Waverley he filled in the faults book detailing the condition of the interior

A week or two later it reappeared  totally spotless

[Wheatley]

George O'Hara's Scottish diesels book has a photo of one in gsyp near Ayr which I think was 55000. It was in bsyp by the time WS Seller photographed it at (I think) Barassie a year or so later.

Edited May 22, 2019 by Wheatley

[Blobrick]

Hi Wheatley

 

Many thanks for taking the time to reply

That's just what l was hoping to hear, many thanks for confirming what l suspected. I ll have to see if I can find a copy of George O/Hara's book.

Edited May 22, 2019 by Blobrick

[muddys-blues]

Hi Blobrick, the earliest picture on www.railcar.co.uk shows 55000 in 1969 in early blue with small yellow warning panels, @EddieK may be help with your search.

 

Hope this helps

 

Best regards

Craig.

[Blobrick]

Evening MB, thanks for the heads up on that sighting, much appreciated

 

Bob C

[MidlandRed]

I think this almost certainly arrived on ScR in early rail blue with sywp, white cab rooves and red buffer beams. I saw it, I think in the summer of 1967, at Prestwick station in this condition. The give away was it was numbered W55000 (as well as only Swindon painting the cab rooves white in that early livery). I was staying with relatives at the time and went to Prestwick station with my cousin, who assured me we'd see a railbus or two - W55000 turned up instead - as a Brummie I'd been accustomed to the Tyseley class 122s so I'd never seen this one before - but not quite on the same level of exotica as a diesel railbus!! 

 

The only other class 122s I've ever heard of in this early rail blue livery were M55003 (Tyseley - seen on Leamington to Stratford) and W55015 (Laira - reported in Railway Magazine on the Looe branch) - unless anyone else knows better! 

[MidlandRed]

On 10 July 2019 at 01:45, MidlandRed said:

I think this almost certainly arrived on ScR in early rail blue with sywp, white cab rooves and red buffer beams. I saw it, I think in the summer of 1967, at Prestwick station in this condition. The give away was it was numbered W55000 (as well as only Swindon painting the cab rooves white in that early livery). I was staying with relatives at the time and went to Prestwick station with my cousin, who assured me we'd see a railbus or two - W55000 turned up instead - as a Brummie I'd been accustomed to the Tyseley class 122s so I'd never seen this one before - but not quite on the same level of exotica as a diesel railbus!! 

 

The only other class 122s I've ever heard of in this early rail blue livery were M55003 (Tyseley - seen on Leamington to Stratford) and W55015 (Laira - reported in Railway Magazine on the Looe branch) - unless anyone else knows better! 

 

In the interests of accuracy, Tyseley's M55008 was also in blue syp - I discovered some photos of it buried in railcar.co.uk - there are also photos there of W55000 and also SC55015 in blue syp, the latter after conversion to class 131 parcels use. 

 

A couple of those pictures show very clearly the numbers used on those units are remarkably small (as were DMU coach numbers generally in that livery) - making the Dapol upside down W issue on 55003, blue syp, only part of the problem as the numbering looks to be more like the later style. 

[Wheatley]

On ‎22‎/‎05‎/‎2019 at 17:39, Wheatley said:

George O'Hara's Scottish diesels book has a photo of one in gsyp near Ayr which I think was 55000. It was in bsyp by the time WS Seller photographed it at (I think) Barassie a year or so later.

Apologies all, I looked this up and then forgot all about it ! The earlier gsyp photo is a different unit, not 55000. I'll look it up again and write the caption down this time ! 

 

Edit - 55007

Edited February 5, 2020 by Wheatley

[caradoc]

18 hours ago, MidlandRed said:

 

In the interests of accuracy, Tyseley's M55008 was also in blue syp - I discovered some photos of it buried in railcar.co.uk - there are also photos there of W55000 and also SC55015 in blue syp, the latter after conversion to class 131 parcels use. 

 

A couple of those pictures show very clearly the numbers used on those units are remarkably small (as were DMU coach numbers generally in that livery) - making the Dapol upside down W issue on 55003, blue syp, only part of the problem as the numbering looks to be more like the later style. 

 

Good info MidlandRed, thanks, however the Daplo OO scale 55003 is blue FYE, so the number is correct, apart of course from the ridiculous 'M' !

[MidlandRed]

On 30 July 2019 at 17:52, caradoc said:

 

Good info MidlandRed, thanks, however the Daplo OO scale 55003 is blue FYE, so the number is correct, apart of course from the ridiculous 'M' !

 

Thanks for the correction  caradoc - I got carried away a bit there - in spite of the detail points Dapol are to be congratulated on this model which really is the archetypal WR branch line train of the early modernisation era. I find their history as fascinating as the excellent class 116 thread - possibly because both classes featured in my youthful spotting days and were early subjects of inter-regional transfers owing to closures and cut backs - presumably the WR had run out of steam locos by late 1966 to show stock savings!! I also recall my older, often steam loving peers asking, apparently horrified why I was collecting 'bug unit' carriage numbers....a few were a decidedly faded green (originally almost malachite) at Snow Hill in the early 60s, which is possibly where the derisory name came from! 

Edited August 1, 2019 by MidlandRed

[keefer]

Of the three cl.131 conversions, it seems 55013/4 at least, were converted while in GSYP. Not found a pic of 55015 in green, only BSYP (as mentioned by MidlandRed above.)

Dont know if this has been referred to yet, but a pic on Railcar showing 55000 in BSYP with 55013 in GSYP and 55011 in BFYE, in 1968/9

https://www.railcar.co.uk/images/5014

[Pandora]

For the record,  the NR digital video recording unit, a bubble car equipped with sophisticated digital cameras , ran around Scotland including the Far North around 15 years ago

[Halvarras]

Regarding 55014's livery in Scotland, I saw this one paired with W55016 at Truro in 1967 and my notebook says both units were blue (and memory says with FYEs). In August the previous year, my first year of railway interest, I'd ridden in GSYP W55015 (coupled to trailer W56298) on the St Ives branch, so Swindon may have been a bit miffed to have overhauled and repainted this unit shortly after, and W55000, only to see them sent to the far end of the country!

W55013's GSYP livery had an interesting twist as the lining was applied in the same manner as a Class 121, which was all the excuse I needed to modify a Hornby GSYP W55028 into this one without a full repaint (I know some small details are still incorrect but it looks the part). A detail image on the railcar website suggests W55018 was the same but no confirmation so far......

I have also assembled a Class 131 parcels unit from scrap Lima parts on a Hornby chassis, to be SC55015 in BSYP whenever I get around to painting it!

Buying up a quantity of Lima Class 101 detail kits while they were available for a few quid has proved a sound investment too......

 

Neil P

[keefer]

found mention of the bubblecars in the Nov.1969 RO:

"[Describing the use of set numbers in the Glasgow area] Those set numbers allocated to Hamilton West (66C) have been taken from a current official list and are as follows:

Set. No.     Coach no. 

00/11/13   SC55000/11/13 (all still actually prefixed W)

02/5/7       SC55002/5/7, with Driving Trailers SC56291/7/9 (55005,56291/9 still prefixed M)"

[Halvarras]

23 hours ago, keefer said:

found mention of the bubblecars in the Nov.1969 RO:

"[Describing the use of set numbers in the Glasgow area] Those set numbers allocated to Hamilton West (66C) have been taken from a current official list and are as follows:

Set. No.     Coach no. 

00/11/13   SC55000/11/13 (all still actually prefixed W)

02/5/7       SC55002/5/7, with Driving Trailers SC56291/7/9 (55005,56291/9 still prefixed M)"

One of the Ian Allan combos in the late 60s/early 70s has a photo of Driving Trailer 56291 in BSYP livery, described as SC prefixed (as listed) but presumably M then. Number not legible but hopefully correct!

Dapol' s Class 121/122 models have a host of issues, only one of which is SC55013 in blue as a passenger vehicle - if it was a parcels unit in green and never had seats reinstated, how.....?

[keefer]

Regarding 55013, even I noticed that one! Of all the cars to pick they go for one that was well known as a parcels car. Basic research would have shown the extra van doors and mesh/paint on the windows.

I suppose it's easy enough to re-number (iirc they didn't use the correct typeface, not on the green ones anyway)

[Halvarras]

When I say 'a host of issues' I should narrow this down to decoration, they seem fine technically, although I admit to not owning any of these at present. 

Dapol seemed to have a fixation on the Scottish Region for their initial Class 122 releases, strange considering they didn't reach those parts until 1967. Green SC55007 may have received small yellow panels before losing its original 'joined-up' exhaust but surely this would have been chopped by 1967. Was it even sent to the ScR in green livery?

I couldn't help noticing that Dapol's N gauge Class 122s in green didn't have 2-character headcode panels either - surely even printed ones would have been better that nothing in that scale.

[KeithMacdonald]

Was W55000 sent to Scotland in its Regional Railways livery? Or did that come later?

 

 

[MidlandRed]

Regional railways was a much later livery - a handful of class 122s (including 55000) were transferred to Cornwall for use on the branch lines - to cover for issues with the Pacer/Skipper units. Late 80s/early 90s. 55000 was repainted into RR livery (circa 1991 according to railcar.co.uk). 

Edited February 9, 2020 by MidlandRed