‘Going forward to the past’ with new rail ideas for Pacers and routes

There was a time when Sheffield had a choice of three railway routes to London.
 Northern Rail Class 142 Pacer diesel Northern Rail Class 142 Pacer diesel
Northern Rail Class 142 Pacer diesel

The Midland via Leicester to St Pancras, the route of the Master Cutler via Retford to Kings Cross, and the last to arrive, the Great Central to Marylebone.

Grouping in 1923 put the last two into the LNER, the LMS got the Midland. After nationalisation in 1948, the LMS being the biggest of the “big four”, their influence dominated the newly created British Railways.

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Some LNER services became a “poor relation”, and by the late 1960s, the Master Cutler had gone, and most of the Great Central route had been completely closed, and the track removed.

A Pacer 142 train from the 1980'sA Pacer 142 train from the 1980's
A Pacer 142 train from the 1980's

A number of large towns lost, or never had direct trains to London, including Rotherham which with about a 80,000 population being twice the size of King’s Lynn which has had electric trains to London for many years.

Scunthorpe has a population of 60,000, Castleford 40,000 and its almost contiguous neighbour Pontefract 30,000, plus a few more in Normanton.

The basis of this “trunk branches” service is a class 222 Pioneer train which splits mid train to give two, two coach trains with a streamlined cab at each end and two driving positions mid train. These have been used for years in North America for driving shunting locos from the ground, and may well have a role here. It would be cheaper than building extra cabs.

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One section starts from Normanton and calls at Castleford, Pontefract, and then takes the existing freight-only line from Knottingley to Shaftholme Junction and Doncaster. Here it would be joined by a similar pair of coaches from Scunthorpe.

If one believes reports, there are a number of spare electric locos classes in danger of either scrapping or export with useful life left in them. It is suggested one of these is used from Doncaster south, with each section coupling on behind, with the diesel power switched off. If we believe all the current “dieselophobia” this should be welcomed.

All four would head south and be joined at Retford by another four Pioneer coaches and follow the first four coach set into the platform, waiting on the curve from Whisker Hill Junction if necessary.

This would be from Rotherham Central and reverse in Sheffield Midland, calling also at Worksop. The resulting eight coach train would make good use of line capacity south.

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On the return north, the train is driven remotely from the leading cab of the end diesel unit, but using electric power, and each splits off at the appropriate point.

In 2017, then minister Chris Grayling cancelled the electrification to Sheffield. Commuters from Corby and Kettering did deserve it. So far, it has not been re-instated.

This writer used Pacer trains many times over the years to Sheffield from Hull. The journeys were invariably uncomfortable, with much rolling. So I had an idea. It first arose around the turn of the millennium, with a trip to Kings Cross in the then fairly new Mk4 coaches, and the return on a White Rose, ex-Eurostar train. The ride quality in the latter was much smoother, perhaps attributable to the articulation of the bogies. The Pacer trains, then well into their second decade of use, had a universal reputation for poor riding, usually blamed on the four wheel wagon chassis. I wondered if the two wagon chassis were replaced by three bogies, the middle one articulated between both coaches would ride better.

Accordingly, I wrote to whichever company used the Pacers around Yorkshire, and for a change I did receive a reply. It was: ‘these trains are too close to the end of their lives to make such alterations cost-effective.”

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Almost two decades later they are still in service, but are now going to be withdrawn, and alternative, probably non-rail use, is being sought. We are also told there is a shortage of rolling stock so how about this reuse of the redundant Pacers? Using the above modus operandi, a two coach Sprinter, with a few years life left in it, is split. Both the middle bogies of the set are moved out, and a Pacer body is dropped on to them to articulate. This will involve no new parts, and as the Pacer body now has little more than scrap value, this would be very cheap.

Since they would be accessed from the Sprinter coaches, this solves the problem of wheelchairs, a claimed reason for withdrawal. If the old seats are still there, they would be replaced. Rather than have them grounded as out of place sports pavilions, this seems to tick a few boxes by going “forward to the past.”