During our recent trip to Derby for the Model Railway Exhibition, I shot this pic of a Midland Mainline class 170 dmu. Although the station has been modernised, much of the original lattice girder supports and canopy has been retained. When Nottingham had more than one station, this was called Nottingham Midland, as it was built by the Midland Railway.
Alan, I meant to ask you this when you posted your Derby photos. What is your opinion of the class 170 DMU's ?? Central Trains use them on services from Liverpool to Stansted Airport and to an old-fashioned loco hauled person like myself this sounds like a marathon journey for a dmu I find the class 158's and 156's in use on my local line far too cramped for long journeys although the new 175's are an improvement. Maybe the 170's are better than I imagine ?? I spent a couple of hours at Manchester Piccadilly station last week and virtually every train was a multiple unit........obviously a sign of the times John. [ 13 May 2002, 20:15: Message edited by: John Whitby ]
<font color="336633">The 170's are rather good, but then I only been on a few DMU's the seats are not bad, as they are sort of shaped a bit, unlike the planks of wood i'm sure most of the stock seems to be made of </font>
John, I have to say that I was quite impressed with the 170. Once inside and rolling, you do not realise you are in a dmu, they ride very well, and are very quiet. The King's Cross-Hull trains are all 170's now I think, and they should be a good ride on the main lines, also in time all Virgin trains will be multiple units, so I guess the days of hauled stock are numbered!
Thanks Matt + Alan. I will have to take a ride on a 170. From what you say it would appear that they have been designed for fairly long distances (by British standards ) John
Haven't travelled in a Turbostar yet (so many trains, so little time! ), but I've done lots of mileage in the 165/166 Thames Turbo's as I used to commute into London from Slough on those. Though there were disadvantages over the hauled stock they replaced on fast trains, they were light years ahead of the vintage DMU's they replaced on the stopping services, which were (by the early 90's) slow, noisy, smelly, dirty and unreliable. We certainly do have an MU-centric operation here in the Uk, and whilst from one point of view that's very boring, I find watching the railways operate interesting.... Last night I visited a different photo location just off Exmouth junction, and spent 25 minutes (whilst waiting for Rachel to finish work ) watching the trains go by, trains on that line are virtually exclusively DMU's on both the Exmouth branch & the Waterloo-Exeter line, it was interesting watching the different routes through the junction, and working out how the trains interacted with each other "off stage" so to speak. I'll post the pics if anyone is interested
