British Rail Class 156

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British Rail Class 156 Super Sprinter
Class 156 no. 156419 at Sudbury, newly repainted into the National Express East Anglia livery, with a service to Marks Tey
In service	1987 - present
Manufacturer	Metro-Cammell
Family name	Sprinter
Number built	114, from 1987 - 1989
Formation	2 car
Operator	Current: East Midlands Trains First ScotRail National Express East Anglia Northern Rail Previous: British Rail Central Trains
Specifications
Car length	23m
Maximum speed	75 mph (121 km/h)
Engine(s)	Cummins NT855-R5
Power output	285 horsepower (213 kW)
Safety system(s)	AWS, TPWS
Coupling system	BSI[1]
Gauge	Standard gauge: 1,435 mm (4 ft 8½ in)

The British Rail Class 156 Super Sprinter is a diesel multiple unit (DMU). A hundred and fourteen of these units were built from 1987-89 by Metro-Cammell (now owned by Alstom) at their Washwood Heath Works in Birmingham. They were built to replace elderly First Generation "Heritage" DMUs and locomotive-hauled passenger trains.

Description

These units were all built as two-car sets, numbered 156401-514. Each unit was formed of two driving motors, one of which contained a toilet. Individual carriages numbered as follows:

• 52401-52514 - Driving Motor Standard Lavatory (DMSL)
• 57401-57514 - Driving Motor Standard (DMS)

The vehicles are based on the Mark 3 bodyshell, and are powered by 6-cylinder Cummins NT855-R5 diesel engines through Voith T211r hydraulic automatic transmissions and Gmeinder final drive units.^[2] They have a top speed of 75 mph (121 km/h), although in practice speeds of up to 90 mph (140 km/h) have been observed on level track, though not in regular service.

Unlike the Class 150 units, the 156s have a single leaf sliding door at either end of each coach - this feature reflected the anticipated longer journeys with fewer stops that the Class 156 was supposed to operate. The first 100 units were all ordered by the Regional Railways sector of British Rail, and therefore carried Regional Railways livery. Twenty units, numbers 156401-419/422 based at Tyseley depot, were later repainted into Regional Railways Express livery.

The last fifteen units, numbers 156500-514 were ordered by Strathclyde PTE, and carried a distinctive orange black livery. This was later replaced by an attractive carmine and cream livery, reminiscent of the 1950s livery carried by Mk.1 coaching stock.

In the early 1990s, BR identified a need for single-carriage trains, and considered splitting 156 units into a new class 152^{[citation needed]}. However it was decided to convert Class 155 units into Class 153.

Operations

This sect may be slanted towards recent events. Please try to keep recent events in historical perspective. (March 2009)

After privatisation, the Class 156 fleet was split between several franchises, which are described below.

Scotland

Class 156 no. 156433 in ScotRail Saltire livery

Their initial introduction was controversial as they replaced locomotive hauled stock (particularly Class 37 hauled) on longer routes. Various issues such as limited toilet facilities were cited as criticisms,^{[citation needed]} but they proved to have much lower operating costs. It is reported they are the worst fleet in Scotland getting wheel lathe duties as a result of flats.^{[citation needed]}

First ScotRail operates the largest fleet of Class 156 units. They operate on both short distance commuter routes and services of up to five and a half hours, such as Glasgow to Fort William and Mallaig.

They currently can be seen on many core routes including:

• Glasgow South Western Line - Glasgow to Stranraer / Carlisle via Kilmarnock
• West Highland Line - Glasgow to Oban and Mallaig
• Shotts Line - Glasgow Central to Edinburgh Waverley via Cambuslang, Bellshill and Shotts.

156434 in SPT livery

Units nos. 156500-514, which are operated by Strathclyde Partnership for Transport and are currently painted in carmine and cream livery are used on Glasgow local servicess (of course in reality any of the 48 ScotRail units can be used regardless of what livery, however only those units with RETB equipment can operate on the West Highland Line):

• Glasgow to Paisley Canal
• Glasgow to Whifflet
• Glasgow to Anniesland via Maryhill
• Glasgow to East Kilbride

Additionally, these units in particular are often seen working through to Newcastle on two services per day (from Girvan and Stranraer) as these services are jointly operated by First ScotRail and Northern Rail.

In reality, both local and long distance are interchangeable (except only Radio Electronic Token Block (RETB) fitted units can operate the West Highland Line).

Class 156s also operate trains from Glasgow Queen Street to Stirling, Dunblane, Cumbernauld and Falkirk,^[when?] as well as Edinburgh Waverley to West Calder, Perth, Kirkcaldy and Fife Circle only on Sundays.

In September 2008 the Scottish Government's agency Transport Scotland announced that all ScotRail trains (including from the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport) would be eventually repainted in a new, blue livery with white Saltire markings on the carriage ends. This will be applied to all Class 156s operating in Scotland. 156433 was the first train to be repainted in this livery and departed RailCare Springburn on 11 February 2009.^[3]

East Anglia

National Express East Anglia 156419

The former 'one' livery of National Express East Anglia

In early 2005, one started to receive several former Central Trains Class 156 units, which were exchanged for Class 150 units. The newer Class 156 units are more suitable for several of the longer-distance routes, and also provide extra passenger accommodation and compliment Class 153 units.

The units will be used on local services:

• Bittern Line - Norwich-Cromer-Sheringham
• Wherry Lines - Norwich-Great Yarmouth/Lowestoft
• East Suffolk Line - Ipswich-Lowestoft/Felixstowe
• Sudbury Branch Line - Marks Tey-Sudbury

as well as the longer distance Norwich-Cambridge and Ipswich-Cambridge/Peterborough services.

National Express East Anglia currently have a fleet of nine 156s.

Northern England

Class 156 no. 156451 at Lancaster on 1 April 2005. This unit carries the first version of Northern Rail livery.

Following privatisation both First North Western and Arriva Trains Northern (the successor to Northern Spirit) operated class 156s on their respective routes; The majority of these workings were inherited by Northern Rail along with their 156s at the change of franchise. The vehicles inherited from the different companies have different interiors, showing their history.

Six former Arriva Trains Northern Class 156 units were transferred to the North West by Merseyrail to replace some overcrowded Class 142 Pacer units in the Merseyside area after more than 20 extra Class 158s had been introduced in Yorkshire.

The interior of a Northern Rail Class 156. The interior was refurbished by the defunct Northern Spirit

Northern Rail has so far introduced three new liveries. The first, carried by no. 156451, is mainly purple (mauve), but with white bands. The second livery, as carried by nos. 156425/460/464 is the inverse of the first livery. The final livery, first applied to no. 156461, is similar to the second livery, but with the white replaced by blue.

Midlands

156410 at Nottingham on 24 September 2003 in Central Trains livery, with a service to Worcester

Central Trains had a fleet of 11 units inherited from Regional Railways. Central Trains repainted this fleet to its own green and yellow livery; these units were used on faster long-distance trains such as Birmingham to Nottingham via Derby or Leicester, Birmingham to Hereford, Birmingham to Shrewsbury and Nottingham to Skegness or Lincoln.

Some of Central Trains Class 156s were replaced with Class 170 Turbostar trains and the Class 156 units went to First North Western.^[when?] In early 2005, a number of Central Trains Class 156 units were transferred to 'one' Anglia, in exchange for Class 150 units.

The remaining units were transferred to East Midlands Trains after the Central franchise ended. They are used on slower medium-distance services such as Nottingham/Derby to Matlock,Peterborough to Doncaster via Lincoln Central, Nottingham to Skegness, Leicester to Lincoln or Nottingham to Worksop.

Operations outside the United Kingdom

In the summer of 1989, in connection with celebrations marking the 150th anniversary of Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS, the Dutch Railways), British Rail was invited to send a representative example of their most modern train to be exhibited at Utrecht for two weeks in the summer. Class 156 unit number 156502 from Glasgow was finally selected - unusual as it was in the Strathclyde Passenger Executive (SPE) livery of orange and black. On 16 June 1989, the unit was driven under its own power from the Railway Technical Centre by a Derby train crew all the way to the Netherlands. In those far off days the Channel Tunnel was just a dream so the SNCF train ferry was utilised to cross from Dover Western Docks to Dunkirk from where the unit was driven through France and Belgium to the Dutch border at Essen and on to Utrecht with help from SNCF, SNCB and NS train crews. The unit was exhibited along with various items of rolling stock from across Europe for around two weeks after which it returned to the UK.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: British Rail Class 156

• Metro-Cammell class 156 Super-Sprinter - Information about current and past Class 156 operation, including technical details, liveries and accident reports.
• The story in pictures of 156502's visit to Holland
• British Photo Database - Class 156 Super-Sprinter

References