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170 DMU's in South Devon?


Guest Moria

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Guest Moria

Working on stock allocations for my new layout based on Paignton area and have a 170 Turbostar unit.

 

Did these ever get into South Devon in any livery, that I could stretch history for the Paignton area at all?

 

Regards

 

Graham

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They weren't hugely common in the West in my recollection (they tended to concentrate on Southampton area stopping services and Salisbury-London trains) but there were a couple of regular diagrams taking them as far as Exeter during 2003/4 I know - I don't recall them being regularly diagrammed West of Exeter but never say never as royaloak's info says...(I wasn't paying as much attention to the railway in 2001 so I could be wrong...the other possibility is they were delivered in 2000 so the Plymouth visit could have been for pubicity reasons?)

 

On the 2003/4 Saturday AM diagram, and working from memory it came down as a 5 car set with a 159, the 159 headed West whilst the 170 stabled for a couple of hours, joining up with a different 159 coming in from points West later on - not a big stretch to the credibility to diagram the 170 down to Paignton and leave the 159 stabled in Exeter with that scenario?

 

Watch the era you're modelling though, the SWT fleet went off to Trans-Pennine(*) circa 2006/7? replaced by older (but much more practical, and a larger fleet of) 158s and 'new' 159/1s - so SWT 170s in Devon works with the 'Regional' operator being Wessex Trains, but not with First Great Western if you like.

 

Here's 170306 shunting from the stabling sidings into Exeter St Davids - 31st July 2004:

1230542106_Em5f3-M.jpg

 

(*all bar one which I think is now a 171 at Southern?)

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I'm glad that I wasn't seeing things that day in 2003/4 when I thought that I saw the 5 car 195/170 set parked up at Ex StD!

Although any excuse is a good excuse as far as stuff on Matford, but now my conscience is clean! :P

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(*all bar one which I think is now a 171 at Southern?)

 

Just to clear this one up, one 170 was delivered to Southern in their livery and with standard Southern interior, however it was diverted immediately after commissioning to SWT, repainted in their colours but keeping the Southern interior. When the 170's departed SWT, the native ones went to Trans Pennine, the odd one went back to Southern, repainted again back into Southern livery and with coupling change became the last numbered 171 two car, the coach numbers are still out of sync with the unit number as a result.

 

I think this was one of the DfT's completely daft ideas....

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Sure I saw a photo of a Central Trains 170 somewhere in Devon or Cornwall. It would be when they preferred to hire out units to other TOCs, rather than run their own train services properly ;)

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If you want to apply Rule 1, there was supposed to be another batch of 170s after the last batch went to ScotRail in 2005. First Great Western was to get 52 of the 202 cars in a mix of 2 and 3 car sets, replacing 150s and 158s on services around Bristol (presumably including Cardiff - Paignton). DfT cancelled the order when the decision was made to electrify the GWML.

 

Cheers

David

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FGW or its predecessors hired 158s from Central Trains on occasions. I think it's unlikely they would have hired a 170 because their crews would have needed extra training on them.

 

Apologies - I must have remembered incorrectly.

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Wessex had several ex-CT class 158s which mostly were still running round in CT green when FGW took over - the grotty ex CT units were replaced by grotty ex TPX units in another DfT inspired ker-shuffle just after FGW took over...definately no 170s tho.

 

For the first few weeks of FGW's running of the local services they also had a Scotrail 158, presumably for publicity reasons as no other 'West' stock got FGW livery or branding for several months.

 

If you want a quick dig round what Wessex operated here's my shots from that era....

http://ukrailwaypics.smugmug.com/UKRailwayPics-2/Wessex-Trains

 

And FGW's 158's here...

http://ukrailwaypics.smugmug.com/UKRailwayPics-1/First-Great-Western/First-Great-Western-class-158/16222008_Zv7Tph#!i=1304328793&k=QJC6sLm

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Old Morag was her name. 158741. It carried the First Scotrail colours and i believe was used so that one of the ex TPX sets could go for refurbishment. Once that was all done it was back to the north it went.

 

To add to this does anyone remember all the names of the ex TPX ones. We had Nora Batty, Auntie Wainright, Ivy, Pearl and Marina but i'm sure there were six but i cant remember the sixth.

 

Paul

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Guest Moria

Many thanks for all the info.

 

Certainly some possibilities especially using an extended rule 1 :)

 

Regards

 

Graham

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