All of its Class 142 Pacer fleet wore the turquoise and cream house colours of Arriva Trains Wales. 32 The Class 142 units were also primarily used on South Wales Valley line routes and routes through the Vale of Glamorgan.The class were built with a high level of commonality with the widely-used Leyland National bus.In the light of the high costs involved in retention, planners examined the prospects for the development and introduction of a new generation of DMUs to succeed the first generation.
Work to progress both approaches was therefore undertaken by BRs research department during the early 1980s. One such vehicle was a single two-car unit, designated Class 140, built between 1979 and 1981. This prototype was introduced with much fanfare in June 1981. Initial testing with the Class 140 uncovered several problems, such as difficulty detecting the type via track circuits. This was reliably resolved by changing the material of the brake blocks from a composite to iron. Two less easily addressable drawbacks were the high level of noise generated during transit, particularly on older jointed rails, a consequence of the railbuss direct connection between the underframe and suspension with the body that transmitted impact forces across the body. It was also observed that the inclusion of strengthening members in the mass-produced bus body added significantly to the overall production cost, which eliminated much of the cost advantage that was the primary goal of the type. When it came to ordering more railbuses, however, it was decided that instead of placing these follow-on orders for further Class 141, it would be more desirable to procure improved derivatives of the Class 141. Accordingly, BR placed orders for two new models of the Pacer family with separate manufacturers, these being the Class 142 and the Class 143. ![]() ![]() The increased seating was particularly useful as, in addition to their use on rural feeder services, the Class 142s use on short range urban services had been foreseen by BR planners. Each unit has a seating capacity of any number between 102 5 and 121 passengers per two-car set. To achieve this, they were manufactured upon jigs. They had been designed so that the entire body could be replaced during a mid-life refurbishmentreconstruction, and that the replacement body would not be limited to the exact same dimensions either. The underframe area, in addition to its structural role, accommodated all of the propulsion apparatus along with the majority of electrical gear. As a cost-saving measure, the manufacturers were directly to make use of road bus-standard equipment in several areas, including passenger fittings and the general cab layout, along with other areas wherever possible; 10 13 14 Unlike the Class 141, which featured automotive-standard wiring for the traction equipment with resulting poor performance, railway-grade wiring for the traction and braking circuits was mandated by BR for both the Class 142 and Class 143 to yield greater reliability. Another improvement was the installation of auto-couplers and auto-connectors that enabled the Class 142 to work in multiple with the Class 150 Sprinter DMUs. The Class 142 is fitted with double-folding external doors, identical to the preceding Class 141. This uncommon arrangement has been attributed with resulting in the Class 141 units possessing a relatively rough ride, especially when traversing jointed track or points. Their combatively poor ride quality has been said to be a major factor in the types general unpopularity amongst passengers. As a positive result from BRs experiences with the Class 141, the Class 142 featured an improved suspension arrangement to enhance passenger comfort, this consisted of a wider spring base and double dampers being installed, features that had been deemed necessary by BR to provide sufficient levels of performance, and had been retrofitted onto all of the older Class 141s as well. Can Models Be Ripped From Train Series Engine 230Accordingly, each car was refitted with a more powerful Cummins L10 series engine 230 bhp per car, which equals 460 bhp (340 kW) per twin-car unit and Voith T211r two-stage hydraulic transmission, starting with a torque converter which switches to fluid coupling drive once the unit is up to 45 mph (72 kmh). All units were fitted with new Voith transmission by late 1991 and Cummins engines were fitted between 1993 and 1996 to improve reliability. This change has proven to have been largely successful, although isolated failures have occurred, such as when a Northern Rail unit derailed en route from Blackpool to Liverpool in June 2009 due to a cardan shaft failure. For example, the first 14 Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive sponsored units (142001-014) received GMPTE orange and brown, then the next 13 West Country based units (142015-027) were painted in a Great Western Railway inspired chocolate and cream livery and marketed as Skippers. In order to operate on Canadian rails, it was equipped with radio and ditch lights, and given the designation RB100 for radio identification. At this point, parent company MTL ran into difficulties and the company was sold to Arriva, who renamed it Arriva Trains Northern in 2001. Due to rising passenger numbers in the north of England (by about 10 per annum and even by over 25 per annum at some stations where the 142s were in operation), 14 some units had been replaced by Sprinter trains. The rest returned to Northern Rail by November 2011, much later than originally planned. All 79 passed with the Northern franchise to Arriva Rail North in April 2016, and any remaining units transferred to the government-owned operator Northern Trains on 1 March 2020. Upon privatisation, these units passed to First North Western in March 1997. All of these sets transferred to Northern in 2016, however remained in the livery of previous operator Northern Rail. All of its Class 142 Pacer fleet wore the turquoise and cream house colours of Arriva Trains Wales. The Class 142 units were also primarily used on South Wales Valley line routes and routes through the Vale of Glamorgan.
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