LSL announce Pacer railtour

[pokemonsuper9]

I'm surprised it took this long for a pacer railtour to happen

LSL only recently got 142003 (and are apparently due to get 142007 too), and I'm not aware of any other mainline tour companies that have Pacers.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

No no and no for me!

 

[Wolfie]

To be fully authentic, the Pacer should be declared a failure, and a 37 on a set of Mark 1s drafted in as a substitute.

Or tickets sold to about 175% of capacity with loads of people standing. Bonus points if someone sits in the loo.

No no and no for me!

Agreed, nowhere near long enough since they were withdrawn for absence to have made the heart grow fonder, lol.

 

[43096]

Agreed, nowhere near long enough since they were withdrawn for absence to have made the heart grow fonder, lol.

It doesn’t matter if they’ve been out of service 5 months, 5 years or 5 decades, you still can’t polish a, well, you know what.

 

[Krokodil]

You can:

 

[Techniquest]

You can:

Thanks, I had been tempted to reply with mentioning that myself

I do miss Mythbusters, I must investigate where I can stream it

 

[gazr]

Thanks, I had been tempted to reply with mentioning that myself

I do miss Mythbusters, I must investigate where I can stream it

Adam Savage has his own Youtube channel 'Tested' which is quite entertaining. The guy has endless enthusiasm.

 

[Techniquest]

Adam Savage has his own Youtube channel 'Tested' which is quite entertaining. The guy has endless enthusiasm.

So I found last night, some really interesting content His passion for what he does is infectious, if more of us were as passionate about stuff as he is then the world would be a better place

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I'm honestly not surprised there's a pacer railtour... but then again I'm surprised it took this long for a pacer railtour to happen. Having it announced this late considering I'm on the HST tour and I don't have the money to change my plans. Then again, like others have said, it's a route that is not that intresting.

The big surprise for me is that they're doing it with a single two-car unit rather than waiting a couple of months or however long it would take until their other 142 is ready to go. Given the limited capacity I'm surprised they're able to make any money on the planned railtour even though it's "sold out".

Whilst it's easy to scoff at the idea of nostalgia for Pacers, the fact that the planned (or at least hinted at being planned) farewell event on the Penistone line was stymied by lockdowns does mean there's perhaps a smallish market for such an event which wasn't properly catered for by timetabled services. It selling out demonstrates this, and had it been a four-car tour it may well have still sold out.

 

[Krokodil]

The big surprise for me is that they're doing it with a single two-car unit rather than waiting a couple of months or however long it would take until their other 142 is ready to go. Given the limited capacity I'm surprised they're able to make any money on the planned railtour even though it's "sold out".

Cheap to operate. It was mentioned earlier that this acts as a route learner so it would have to run anyway and again would be cheaper than using a light engine as they've done before.

 

[lyndhurst25]

There could be a new market for cheap mainline railtours, catering for both the enthusiast and the bucket and spade crowds. What about running the Pacers on summer Saturdays, Manchester to Sheffield to Cleethorpes via Brigg? Merrymaker for the 21st century.

 

[xotGD]

I look forward to the news stories about "Pacers brought back into service" if a journalist happens to catch sight of this Nedex.

 

[8A Rail]

Why, Why, Why is the question! The whole fleet (bar one) should of been completely scrapped when withdrawn, no if's or but's. The remaining one to be kept to remind people what they did NOT miss and not to make the same mistake again!

However, each to their own I suppose.

 

[Krokodil]

Why, Why, Why is the question! The whole fleet (bar one) should of been completely scrapped when withdrawn, no if's or but's. The remaining one to be kept to remind people what they did NOT miss and not to make the same mistake again!

However, each to their own I suppose.

Need a yellow Merseyrail one for that. It should be parked outside the DfT on Marsham Street and used as office accommodation for the minister and senior officials.

 

[8A Rail]

Need a yellow Merseyrail one for that. It should be parked outside the DfT on Marsham Street and used as office accommodation for the minister and senior officials.

Oh what a sensible suggestion.

 

[David Goddard]

Great to see this has come to fruition, and if it sells well they will have proven their point. Railtours do not need to all be a rake of Mk1s with a 1960s diesel on the front.
Disappointed by all of the Pacer bashing, if its not for you then dont go on it. Pacers are an important part of our rail history and its great that they can be celebrated like this.

 

[trainswitheddy]

Great to see this has come to fruition, and if it sells well they will have proven their point. Railtours do not need to all be a rake of Mk1s with a 1960s diesel on the front.
Disappointed by all of the Pacer bashing, if its not for you then dont go on it. Pacers are an important part of our rail history and its great that they can be celebrated like this.

Fully agree! Hopefully it ends up down here at High Marnham sometime...

 

[ExRes]

In the much vaunted spirit of 'levelling up' when is the London tour taking place?

 

[8A Rail]

Great to see this has come to fruition, and if it sells well they will have proven their point. Railtours do not need to all be a rake of Mk1s with a 1960s diesel on the front.
Disappointed by all of the Pacer bashing, if its not for you then dont go on it. Pacers are an important part of our rail history and its great that they can be celebrated like this.

I have no intentions on going on one. I've ridden enough of them in my commuting days and they are a 'sad' part of our railway history too. Yes they served a purpose but were not fit for the job so if that is an 'important part of our rail history' then that is fine and hopefully people will learn from it. In the meantime, as clearly you are fan, I sincerely hope you are supporting this venture?

 

[12LDA28C]

Great to see this has come to fruition, and if it sells well they will have proven their point. Railtours do not need to all be a rake of Mk1s with a 1960s diesel on the front.
Disappointed by all of the Pacer bashing, if its not for you then dont go on it. Pacers are an important part of our rail history and its great that they can be celebrated like this.

As previously mentioned in this thread, post #58 the tour has already sold out.

 

[1Q18]

In the meantime, as clearly you are fan, I sincerely hope you are supporting this venture?

Clearly it has piqued as much interest as the operator hoped it could, or it wouldn’t have sold out! If it’s not for you, move on.

 

[PacerTrain142]

Why, Why, Why is the question! The whole fleet (bar one) should of been completely scrapped when withdrawn, no if's or but's. The remaining one to be kept to remind people what they did NOT miss and not to make the same mistake again!

However, each to their own I suppose.

What do you mean mistake? They were cheap to run and saved some branch lines from closing. If anything, in these days of austerity, cost of living crisis and shortage of rolling stock, we could do with building some more cheap rail buses…

I would love to go on a pacer railtour but would want to go on one that started closer to home and at a later time. 11 am from Blackburn or Preston would be ideal for me.

I will hopefully get to travel on a 144 on Friday/Saturday on the diesel rail gala on the East Lancs Railwa.

As previously mentioned in this thread, post #58 the tour has already sold out.

Tbh I’m actually quite surprised at this. There’s more pacer lovers out there than you think.

 

[12LDA28C]

I would love to go on a pacer railtour but would want to go on one that started closer to home and at a later time. 11 am from Blackburn or Preston would be ideal for me.

I find that railtours don't really work like that - if you'd love to go on a Pacer railtour then you'll probably have to make a little effort and travel to where the train starts or one of the pick-up points on route. It's very rare you get to have a lie-in and join a tour from your home station late in the morning. If you were free on Wednesday 27th September you could most likely get to Manchester for the Pacer tour easily enough.

 

[PacerTrain142]

Thank goodness it's not a Merseytravel one!

You see i actually liked the merseytravel ones. I liked how all the seats faced the same direction and the destination display at the front. Also, the 2+2 northern pacers were quite nice. The bus seat ones looked spartan and ancient.

http://preserved.railcar.co.uk/Class142.html
142055 at the Foxfield Railway and 142058 at the Telford Steam Railway

142041, 142043 and 142045 also survive but not for passengers to experience the Merseyrail interior.


However, seems to me that the intention with 142003 is to offer something with as close to the original interior as possible (even though it doesn't have the original doors or engine and transmission).

I find it slightly amusing how it’s called a steam railway and they are running a pacer lol.

 

[12LDA28C]

I find it slightly amusing how it’s called a steam railway and they are running a pacer lol.

This applies to various heritage / preserved railways - the GWSR (Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway) has much more diesel traction based there than steam, for example.

 

[Krokodil]

They were cheap to run

No they weren't, by the time that they'd been modified enough to actually work (with the odd cardan shaft dropped in the 4ft every now and again) they'd had the same amount spent on them as the 150s, but with fewer seats.

and saved some branch lines from closing

The units proved completely unsuitable for most branch lines (particularly the most loss-making ones) because their long fixed wheelbase couldn't cope with the curves. Instead they mostly ended up deployed on suburban services

 

[PacerTrain142]

No they weren't, by the time that they'd been modified enough to actually work (with the odd cardan shaft dropped in the 4ft every now and again) they'd had the same amount spent on them as the 150s, but with fewer seats.


The units proved completely unsuitable for most branch lines (particularly the most loss-making ones) because their long fixed wheelbase couldn't cope with the curves. Instead they mostly ended up deployed on suburban services

They may not have been cheaper to build but certainly cheaper to operate. I know don’t how they would compare to say, a 150 in terms of fuel efficienc, maintenance costs etc but I do know they were cheaper for the rail companies to lease than a 150. Which is probably why they lasted so long.

I agree they are not suitable for a lot of the tightly curved branch lines in Cornwall but they still operated on many small branch lines with not much usage:
Colne to Preston, Preston to Ormskirk and Darlington to Bishop Auckland, for example.

 

[12LDA28C]

LSL only recently got 142003 (and are apparently due to get 142007 too), and I'm not aware of any other mainline tour companies that have Pacers.

Vintage Trains have three Class 144 Pacer units.

 

[43096]

Vintage Trains have three Class 144 Pacer units.

“Had” rather than “have”, I thought?

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Vintage Trains have three Class 144 Pacer units.

Do they still have any? It was reported on here that some or all were later scrapped.

A shame in my opinion, as being three-car they'd have greater capacity for tours.