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Converting a bus into a train into a metaphor

Started by Zetetic, May 28, 2019, 08:23:13 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Zetetic

In turns out the winning entry is... to keep using them as trains.

(Both Northern and TfWales have now abandoned plans to withdraw them by the end of this year.)

Glebe

#31
Quote from: Zetetic on May 28, 2019, 08:23:13 PMThe Pacers have been the workhorses of the north's rail network, connecting communities for more than 30 years, but it is clear that they have outstayed their welcome.

Don't forget the great work done by the fluffers and crackers!

Quote from: Al Tha Funkee Homosapien on May 28, 2019, 09:06:19 PMMobile Gegs?


(Sorry its all gone a bit Happy Shopper Cold War Steve)

Belated Karma, ATFH.

Zetetic

"Today marks the final passenger service operated by a Pacer train on Northern."

https://twitter.com/northernassist/status/1332380266850115587

Think we still have them in Wales, but I've not been near a train for ages.


PlanktonSideburns

fuckin hate these trains

train guy said to me once that the pacer we were in probably done a million miles

BIN IT THEN!

Sebastian Cobb

I turns out one got sent to america to test on an ailing Septa lines. They ran it once up the tracks that hadn't been used for ages and went 'fuck that'.

The decay of SEPTA is quite interesting in general:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkWxbAoOK2o


idunnosomename

theres a lot of shitting on pacers under this tweet

https://twitter.com/GarethDennis/status/1332352379958816770

absolute Thatcher's Britain shite. melt them into atoms

touchingcloth

I don't know what your guys'es' beef is. I like Pacers; I like how they make my ankles hot and change the temperature in other parts of my body not a jot.

Sebastian Cobb

A pacer is a good example of neoliberalism more-or-less resulting in "soviet union, but expensive" privatised service


buzby

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on November 27, 2020, 10:05:45 PM
I turns out one got sent to america to test on an ailing Septa lines. They ran it once up the tracks that hadn't been used for ages and went 'fuck that'.

The decay of SEPTA is quite interesting in general:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkWxbAoOK2o
The ones (as there were two of them) sent to the US for testing were not strictly a Pacer as we know them. but were parallel developments of the original Leyland LEV1 Railbus prototype.

One was called LEV2 and was built purely as trial unit for an export model for the US market (the original LEV1 single car prototype had been sent over there for demonstrations and the US DoT/Amtrak were impressed enough to order a modified version for further trials in 1980. Like LEV1 it was a single car rather than a 2-car DMU and was stretched to 50ft by the addition of 2 extra Leyland National window bay modules. It also had standard Leyland National II bus cab ends.

It was built by Wickhams from components supplied by Leyland and BREL as anything built by a state-owned manufacturer would have been difficult to import into the US. On arrival it was initially sent for trials with the MBTA in Boston but was involved in a level crossing accident as it was too light to operate the crossing signal switches reliably. It was then sent to Rhode Island and operated briefly on Northeast Corridor services until being withdrawn. It then passed through a number of preserved railways and is now sat in the scrap line at the Connecticut Trolley Museum (see the above picture)

Later on,in 1984, Leyland and BREL developed another single car export demonstrator from the LEV2 concept called RB002. This featured the 3-window strengthened cab ends developed for the Class 141 Pacer.

It was sent over to Canada and the US for trials (including Washington, Virginia and it's brief stay in Pennsylvania) before returning to the UK and then being sent for trials in Denmark and Sweden. It returned to the UK again and was sent to a railway on the Dutch/German border for trials and then returned back to the UK again. It was eventually sent to Ireland, where it now sits decomposing at a now defunct preserved railway. No export orders were forthcoming from it's many trials.

The only actual Pacer to make it over the Atlantic was Class 142 142049 which was sent to Vancouver as a demonstrator during Expo 86 (we sent a Pacer as an example of the cream of British engineering prowess)
.

Shoulders?-Stomach!


idunnosomename

 all  participants   must  present  themselves  in   fit  state  to rive  the  unit ,no one  under  the  influence  of  alcohol or  drugs will  be allowed  to drive  the  unit

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Quote from: idunnosomename on November 28, 2020, 11:46:01 AM
all  participants   must  present  themselves  in   fit  state  to rive  the  unit ,no one  under  the  influence  of  alcohol or  drugs will  be allowed  to drive  the  unit

R o b l em, w i t h t h a t?


Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: buzby on November 28, 2020, 01:32:16 AM


Interesting it sounds like the podcast I link conflated the two then as they told it as one train being ran in Pennsylvania then stuck in a yard. It was I guess a footnote on SEPTA's decades-long demise.

Zetetic


Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: Zetetic on November 28, 2020, 02:17:10 PM
This finally got me to listen to WTYP, which I'm grateful for.

Nice, I've only recently got into it (not got around to Trashfuture) but have been hammering it and really enjoy them.

Dex Sawash


buzby

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on November 28, 2020, 11:51:58 AM
Interesting it sounds like the podcast I link conflated the two then as they told it as one train being ran in Pennsylvania then stuck in a yard. It was I guess a footnote on SEPTA's decades-long demise.
I've been watching Well There's Your Problem from when it started. Unless it's on  building/civil engineering (which Justin has experience in), US rail accidents or they have a guest on with knowledge in the field for that episode, the technical side and details usually leave something to be desired. The Boeing 737MAX episode is probably the nadir when i comes to that, but the Hillsborough, Grenfell and recent 1955 Le Mans one were also a bit hit and miss factually.

Zetetic

A family support centre at a hospital.
A kitchen for a mental health charity.
A new classroom for kids.

phes

Quote from: buzby on November 28, 2020, 01:32:16 AM
The ones (as there were two of them) sent to the US for testing were not strictly a Pacer as we know them. but were parallel developments of the original Leyland LEV1 Railbus prototype.

One was called LEV2 and was built purely as trial unit for an export model for the US market (the original LEV1 single car prototype had been sent over there for demonstrations and the US DoT/Amtrak were impressed enough to order a modified version for further trials in 1980. Like LEV1 it was a single car rather than a 2-car DMU and was stretched to 50ft by the addition of 2 extra Leyland National window bay modules. It also had standard Leyland National II bus cab ends.

It was built by Wickhams from components supplied by Leyland and BREL as anything built by a state-owned manufacturer would have been difficult to import into the US. On arrival it was initially sent for trials with the MBTA in Boston but was involved in a level crossing accident as it was too light to operate the crossing signal switches reliably. It was then sent to Rhode Island and operated briefly on Northeast Corridor services until being withdrawn. It then passed through a number of preserved railways and is now sat in the scrap line at the Connecticut Trolley Museum (see the above picture)

Later on,in 1984, Leyland and BREL developed another single car export demonstrator from the LEV2 concept called RB002. This featured the 3-window strengthened cab ends developed for the Class 141 Pacer.

It was sent over to Canada and the US for trials (including Washington, Virginia and it's brief stay in Pennsylvania) before returning to the UK and then being sent for trials in Denmark and Sweden. It returned to the UK again and was sent to a railway on the Dutch/German border for trials and then returned back to the UK again. It was eventually sent to Ireland, where it now sits decomposing at a now defunct preserved railway. No export orders were forthcoming from it's many trials.

The only actual Pacer to make it over the Atlantic was Class 142 142049 which was sent to Vancouver as a demonstrator during Expo 86 (we sent a Pacer as an example of the cream of British engineering prowess)
.

Pacers weren't much fun to ride for long or outside of a moderate temperature range. How does it come to be that we sent them to a bunch of big places with more extreme temperatures. Did we just badger them and they said oh go on then...wait, what fuck is this?

buzby

Quote from: phes on September 09, 2021, 12:31:38 AM
Pacers weren't much fun to ride for long or outside of a moderate temperature range. How does it come to be that we sent them to a bunch of big places with more extreme temperatures. Did we just badger them and they said oh go on then...wait, what fuck is this?
To be fair, the places they were tested for potential export sales were usually branch lines or suburban commuter services - it wasn't like Amtrak were going to use them for mainline services. Given that US trackwork repair standards are even worse than ours, I dread to think what the ride was like on one of those commuter lines (the SEPTA trials on the Fox Chase line in Philadelphia noted that the ride quality was 'lacklustre', and was one of the reasons, along with lack of money, why they never bought any).

On the heating front, the prototypes sent over for testing still had the roof pod heater/aircon units, so although the passengers would have been freezing in winter, at least they wouldn't be boiled alive from the feet upwards in summer.

phes

Ah, of course. Was picturing Amtrak's build of carriages and imagining a pacer chugging along through the wilderness in 37 degrees on spaghetti lines and ploughing through a herd of buffalo. 

Sebastian Cobb

I really like the livery of the RB002 Railbus.

dissolute ocelot

They could use them for unpopular purposes like hostels for paedophiles, nuclear reactors, Israeli theatre troupes, and arms fairs, and drive the country outrunning protestors. Till they reach a red signal or cow on the line west of Airdrie.

Sebastian Cobb

It's really depressing they're getting repurposed for stuff that should just be built.

It's not quite the same when George Clarke isn't gawping at them with child-like wonder.