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British Rail Class 121

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Chiltern Railways operate a single Class 121 "Bubble Car" on Aylesbury to Princes Risborough shuttles. Set 121020 is seen away from its normal haunts, at Bewdley on the Severn Valley Railway on 15th October 2004, whilst taking part in the Railcar 50 event.

The British Rail Class 121 diesel multiple units were built by Pressed Steel in 1960.

Description

Sixteen single-car driving motor vehicles, called "Bubble Cars" were built, numbered 55020-55035. These were supplemented by ten trailer vehicles, numbered 56280-289 (later renumbered 54280-289). They have a top speed of 70 mph, with slam-doors, vacuum brakes and central door locking.

Current Operations

Upon privatisation of Britain's railways, the Class 121 fleet was only operated by one passenger company, namely Silverlink, with several more units in departmental duties with Railtrack. However, only one is left in passenger service, with Chiltern Railways.

Chiltern Railways

In 2003, Chiltern Railways surprised many by reintroducing "Heritage" diesel multiple units on its Aylesbury to Princes Risborough shuttle service. For this purpose, unit 121020 (vehicle 55020) was purchased from Network Rail, and heavily refurbished to allow it to operate passenger services. It was repainted into Chiltern Railways blue livery. The introduction of this unit allowed the release of a Class 165 "Turbo" unit for refurbishment. This unit has been fitted with secondary (magnetic) door locking and other safety features, and thus is exempt from the 31st December 2004 deadline for the withdrawal of all Mark 1 vehicles.

Network Rail

Network Rail (NR) operates a small fleet of former Class 121 vehicles for various departmental roles. These have been reclassified as Class 960 departmental units. Duties include route learning, video surveying of track, Severn Tunnel emergency tunnel evacuation and sandite application. Units are painted in various liveries including Network SouthEast (NSE), Railtrack's brown livery, Railtrack's blue/green livery, and Network Rail's new all-over yellow livery. In addition, two units have been specially repainted in old BR liveries, namely maroon and blue/grey.

The current fleet is listed below:

Unit No. Vehicle No. Livery Use Status
Departmenal No. Former No.
121020 977722 55020 Chiltern Railways Blue Passenger service In traffic
960010 977858 55024 BR Maroon Sandite unit In traffic
960011 977859 55025 Railtrack Blue/Green Video survey unit Withdrawn
960012 977860 55028 SWT Blue/Red Route-learning unit In traffic (South West Trains)
960013 977866 55030 NSE Sandite unit In traffic
960014 977873 55022 BR Blue/Grey Route-learning unit In traffic
960021 977723 55021 Railtrack Brown Sandite/Route-learning unit In traffic
960302 977975 55027 NR Yellow Severn Tunnel emergency unit In traffic
960303 977976 55031 NR Yellow Severn Tunnel emergency unit In traffic
- 977968 55029 EurailScout Yellow Video survey unit In traffic

Silverlink inherited a small fleet of four "Bubble Cars". They were mainly used on the Marston Vale Line from Bletchley to Bedford, as well as non-electrified lines in North London, such as Gospel Oak to Barking. The units replaced the previous fleet of Class 108 and Class 115 units, and were supplemented with a fleet of Class 117 units cascaded from Thames Valley services.

The four units, nos. 55023/27/29/31, were based at Bletchley depot, where staff repainted set L123 (55023) into its original British Railways green livery. The others remained in obsolete Network SouthEast livery. In 1996, set L123 was withdrawn from traffic, and the other three were hired to Great Eastern for use on the Sudbury branch to Sudbury . These returned to Bletchley in 1997/98. Two of the units (121027/029) were repainted into Silverlink's purple and green livery, and the third (121031) was repainted into Network SouthEast livery. The three units also received names from withdrawn Class 117 units.

The units were replaced on Silverlink duties in 2001 by Class 150 "Sprinter" units cascaded from Central Trains. The units have all since been transferred to departmental duties.

Preservation

"Bubble Cars" have proved popular for preservation on heritage railways.

Vehicle No. Unit No. Vehicle Type Location Comments
"Bubble Car" Driving Vehicles
55023 L123 DMBS Chinnor & Princes Risborough Railway Repainted into BR Green livery whilst based at Bletchley depot.
55026 P126 DMBS Swansea Vale Railway Used as a sandite unit after retirement from normal traffic.
55032 T009 DMBS East Lancashire Railway Used as a sandite unit after retirement from normal traffic.
55033 T004 DMBS Colne Valley Railway Painted in experimental MidLine livery.

Used as a sandite unit after retirement from normal traffic.

55034 T005 DMBS Birmingham Railway Museum Used as a sandite unit after retirement from normal traffic.
Trailer Vehicles
54285 T004 DTC Northampton Ironstone Railway Trust Used as a sandite unit adter retirement from normal traffic.
54287 L211 DTC Colne Valley Railway -
54289 L263 DTC Battlefield Railway -
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