Sprint through the Snow

What with it being Christmas and all, I thought it might be jolly to post a couple of pictures of trains in the snow.


I found myself looking at a lot of photos of Class 158/9s.


These trains were part of British Rail's second generation of diesel multiple units, the "Sprinter" family. Built in the 1980s and 90s, they were all based on Mk3 carriage architecture, and around a single engine, a Cummins diesel (which drove the axles through a hydraulic transmission system by Voith).


The "Sprinters" came in a number of flavours:

• Class 150 "Sprinter" units: more than 130 were built as two-car, high-density seating units, intended mainly for relatively short-distance, light commuter routes.
• Class 155/6 "SuperSprinter" units: more than 200 two-car units were built for longer-distance commuter and secondary routes. Some of these were subsequently rebuilt as Class 153 single-car units for the lightest branch lines.
• Class 158/9 "Sprinter Express": more than 180 of these two- and three-car units were built for the longest-distance secondary routes. They were the only members of the Sprinter family which were air-conditioned.

The 158s were introduced from 1989 into the newly-formed "Regional Railways" sector of British Rail, where they wore a rather subtle cream and beige livery.


The Network SouthEast sector also had a need for a long-distance DMU, to replace diesel locomotive-hauled trains on the old South Western routes (London--Salisbury--Exeter; Brighton--/Portsmouth--Southampton--Salisbury--Bristol/--Cardiff).


They were designated Class 159 units because they had a number of differences from the 158s: they were built as 3-car units, and their first class accommodation was much more luxurious than that for Regional Railways.


The Network SouthEast "express" livery worked particularly well on these Class 159 units (though, in truth, it looked good on everything to which it was applied).


After privatisation, the Express Sprinters were made to wear a host of more or less gaudy liveries.


SouthWest Trains, the livery closest to Network SouthEast, was one of the smarter ones on these units:



The unusual profile gave them the nickname "coffins".



The corridor connections that were designed into the front of the units didn't help them to look more stylish, but they were immensely practical. The mostly 2-car Class 158s were often run as 4-car, and sometimes 6-car units; while the 3-car Class 159s could be run as 6-car and, much less often, 9-car units.



Even though they replaced proper locomotive-hauled trains, the 158/9s were good-quality pieces of kit; it was never disappointing to see one waiting at the platform.



In other parts of the country, the "Alphaline" branding was introduced.


This was a cheapskate operation and their re-livery for the most part consisted of sticking a vinyl rectangle saying "Alphaline" over the previous "Regional Railways" name (in fairness, later on they re-painted them, too. Although it was into a weird pastel-lilac-silver).


Infinitely more effective was the delightful rebranding carried out by Northern: a deep blue, with giant gold stars.


In this livery, it did not feel too disappointing that the 158/9s were no longer sporting NSE and RR colours:


That's taken us a long way from trains in the snow, of course.