Interesting, cheers for that. As for what they would've been refurbished for, the reopening of the Whifflet Line (or releasing 156s from Barrhead duties to enable the Sprinters to strengthen Kilmarnock services) makes the most sense date-wise.
Cheers for the reminder, knew I wasn't going nuts. Just looked did a bit of digging and RailwayMedia.co.uk bears gold once again.
53160, 53164, 51192, 53266, 51803 and 51205, Preston 21/12/2003 1T01 1130 Manchester Piccadilly-Manchester Piccadilly (via Buxton, Heysham Port and Barrow in Furness)
www.railwaymedia.co.uk