Pace Yourself - photos of the final(?) Pacer countdown

[ColinK]

On 23/08/2021 at 13:30, Steven B said:

I've often thought they'd have been better if they'd been articulated, sitting on three bogies.

 

Steven B.

Now that’s a good idea for something to do with your old Hornby pacer fleet.

[Ray M]

1 half of 144001, Huddersfield Station.

[sir douglas]

about 2 months ago the pacer at Foxfield had many of its windows smashed

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-61770075

[4630]

Keeping a Pacer alive for passengers to experience in the future, 144011, in the Metro Trains livery of the former West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive, stands in the siding adjacent to Haworth Shed on 27th March 2023.

 

 

The photo was taken from the verandah of a brake van that was being used on an arranged photo shoot along the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway.

[Northmoor]

6 hours ago, 4630 said:

Keeping a Pacer alive for passengers to experience in the future, 144011, in the Metro Trains livery of the former West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive, stands in the siding adjacent to Haworth Shed on 27th March 2023.

 

 

The photo was taken from the verandah of a brake van that was being used on an arranged photo shoot along the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway.

Thanks for clarifying, or I'd have been on the lookout for a 12' tall railway photographer........

 

I remain cynical about the preservation of so many Pacers - it's easy to start preserving free rolling stock, keeping it in presentable condition is the real challenge - but if anyone can maintain one as a working exhibit of a late 20th century local train, the KWVR will be them.

[Steven B]

17 hours ago, Northmoor said:

it's easy to start preserving free rolling stock, keeping it in presentable condition is the real challenge

 

Keeping them presentable is little different to keeping any other loco or multiple unit presentable. At leasts they're mechanically and electrically quite simple. A bigger challenge will be later locos and MU's get preserved with their more complicated electronics. It's a lot easier to keep something moving safely when it can be fixed with a hammer & spanner.

 

Steven B.

[eastwestdivide]

On 31/08/2022 at 07:17, Ray M said:

1 half of 144001, Huddersfield Station.

They've rearranged the clutter around it now! Still in use as a community space, something to do with mental health. 

Edited April 27 by eastwestdivide

[4630]

53 minutes ago, eastwestdivide said:

They've rearranged the clutter around it now! Still in use as a community space, something to do with mental health. 

 

Known as Platform 1.

 

https://platform-1.co.uk/

[Reorte]

On the preservation front and the sheer number of them I expect time will weed them out. Better to start with too many and work down than the other way around, and as unpopular as they were a few do deserve to be preserved - they have their place in history, both as a representation of the railway at that time (shouldn't just be the nicest bits!), and because they probably saved numerous minor lines.

[Northmoor]

2 hours ago, Reorte said:

On the preservation front and the sheer number of them I expect time will weed them out. Better to start with too many and work down than the other way around, and as unpopular as they were a few do deserve to be preserved - they have their place in history, both as a representation of the railway at that time (shouldn't just be the nicest bits!), and because they probably saved numerous minor lines.

I completely agree about the necessity to preserve Pacers and to represent all aspects of railways.  I would however, argue against the suggestion that Pacers "saved" rural lines; their costs of operation weren't significantly less than the First Generation units they replaced.  Two things have more likely contributed to the retention of rural lines: by the late 1980s the public mood had become very resistant to further railway closures and by the 1990s - particularly after privatisation - traffic was rising on rural lines (in some cases, faster than on main lines).  The franchisees were not constrained on what percentage of turnover they could spend on promotion, which BR were.