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British Rail Class 153 "Super Sprinter"
A pair of First Great Western refurbished Class 153 DMUs No. 153372 and 153373 at Exeter St. Davids.
The refurbished interior of a First Great Western Class 153
Specifications
Car length	23.2 metres
Coupling system	BSI

The British Rail Class 153 "Super Sprinter" is a single-car diesel multiple unit passenger railway vehicle.

Description

These units were originally built as two-car Class 155 units by Leyland from 1987-88, but were converted by Hunslet-Barclay at Kilmarnock from 1991-92. The layout of the original non-cab ends was different from the original cab end, so the ends are noticeably distinct, and the vehicles are not symmetrical. The new cab is significantly smaller than the original Leyland cab and encroaches on the door vestibule area, which can lead to slow boarding. They are similar in appearance to the one-car Class 156 vehicles, but the doors on the 153 are the plug type and a 156's doors are sliding. The front of a 153 also looks similar to a 156. Units are numbered in the range 153301-335 and 153351-385. Individual cars are numbered 52301-335 and 57351-385 (originally 57301-335), with the last three digits corresponding to the unit number.

Operations

Upon privatisation of British Rail, the Class 153 fleet was divided amongst several different operators.

Wales

Arriva Trains Wales have a fleet of 8 Class 153s. They are normally used on rural branchlines, such as the Heart of Wales Line from Shrewsbury to Swansea and the line from Wrexham to Bidston but are also used on some mainline services, which can lead to overcrowding. Since December 2005, Arriva have employed a Class 153 to "shuttle" along the Butetown Branch Line between Cardiff Queen Street and Cardiff Bay stations, however a bubblecar is now used on this line.

As of the timetable change on 9 December 2007, Arriva Trains Wales has lost three Class 153 units. Two to East Midlands Trains with the other transferring to First Great Western.

Midlands

London Midland use ten Class 153 DMUs on commuter lines in the West Midlands including Coventry to Nuneaton and the Marston Vale Line between Bedford and Bletchley.

All ten units were inherited from Central Trains in their livery. All of the units are being repainted into London Midland city lines livery upon refurbishment at Eastleigh works. The Class 153s that were used on the Stourbridge Town Branch Line were to be replaced by new built lightweight Class 139 railcars, from December 2008, but as of March 2009 the Class 139s are still not ready, and after several months of bustitution London Midland are to reintroduce diesel services from 15 March pending the completion of Class 139 testing. LM have not explicitly stated which class of train will be used for the service but the class 139 now has its passenger certification from Network Rail.

East Midlands Trains fleet of Class 153s are used on quiet or rural routes in the East Midlands. These are:

• Nottingham to Worksop
• Nottingham to Matlock via Derby
• Nottingham to Skegness
• Peterborough to Lincoln Central and Doncaster
• Newark Northgate to Cleethorpes
• Leicester to Lincoln Central
• Derby to Crewe via Stoke on Trent

East Midlands Trains inherited many different examples of Class 153 units, receiving six from Central Trains, three from National Express East Anglia and four from storage at Eastleigh depot (formerly in service with First Great Western). On 9 December 2007, East Midlands Trains has also received two additional Class 153 units from Arriva Trains Wales (numbers 153310 and 153321) and two additional trains from Northern (153319 and 153357).

Several Class 153 units have also been repainted into EMT colours - specifically 153302, 153308, 153310, 153311, 153313, 153319, 153321, 153326, 153355, 153357, 153374, 153381, 153383 and 153385. All units will be repainted by 2010.

South West England

First Great Western took over the Wessex Trains fleet upon the merger of the two franchises. Wessex Trains had, in turn, inherited its fleet of 13 units from its predecessor, Wales and West.

Units are used on local services in Cornwall, Devon, and around Bristol. They are also used on Bristol Temple Meads to Weymouth, Southampton, and Worcester services and Swindon via Melksham to Southampton service.

In mid-2004, Wessex Trains received a further two units from Central Trains (unit nos. 153329 and 153369) to allow it to lengthen some services.

Following the introduction of a new timetable on 12 December 2006, four units were taken off lease and stored at the former Alsthom works at Eastleigh. They were Nos. 153302, 153308, 153355 and 153374. This decision was criticised at the time by passengers, this was due to an increase in overcrowding on services in the West Country, and in the case of the Looe-Liskeard line. After a period in storage these four units were pressed into service with East Midlands Trains.

On 9 December 2007, First Great Western received an additional Class 153 (number 153361) from Arriva Trains Wales bringing its total to 12.

From late 2007, a refurbishment programme commenced to refurbish the 153 fleet. The trains have been externally reliveried in the 'Local Lines' livery (an adaptation of the 'Dynamic Lines' livery comprising of names of local places and attractions forming the lines) and the interiors have received the following improvements:

• Installation of new carpet
• Repainted dado side panels and wall ends
• Refurbished toilet area with new flooring, wall coverings, toilet and sink basin
• Installation of Richmond 'Navigator high backed seats in the navy blue 'First Great Western' moquette
• Installation of brighter interior saloon lighting diffusers

This refurbishment programme was completed by early June 2008.

Northern England

The new Northern Rail franchise started operations in December 2004. They inherited the fleets previously operated by Arriva Trains Northern and First North Western, whose routes the new franchise incorporated.

Northern inherited a fleet of eight units from First North Western (FNW), which are used on local services around Manchester, Chester and on Lancaster to Barrow-in-Furness to Carlisle and Preston to Ormskirk services. The fleet was repainted in the now obsolete North Western Trains blue and gold livery. Prior to becoming part of Northern, four former FNW units were transferred to the Arriva Trains Wales franchise, since the lines operated by FNW in Wales were transferred to this new company.

A larger fleet of 12 units were inherited from Arriva Trains Northern (ATN). They are used on various local services around Leeds, Doncaster, and Sheffield.

In December 2007, two units were taken off lease from Northern and promptly transferred to East Midlands Trains. Both units, 153319 and 153357 carried Arriva livery.

From late 2007, a re-livery programme has started on Northern's Class 153 trains. All of Northern's Class 153 trains have been repainted into Northern livery.

East Anglia

Anglia Railways inherited a small fleet of seven units, for local services in Suffolk and Norfolk. Services operated by these units included Ipswich to Cambridge, Peterborough, Felixstowe and Lowestoft, and Norwich to Lowestoft, Great Yarmouth and Cromer. One set was also hired to First Great Eastern for use on the Sudbury branch. Anglia Railways named its Class 153 fleet after famous local figures:

In 2003, Anglia started to refurbish its fleet, and repaint them in Anglia Railways livery. However, only three (unit nos. 153309/322/335) were completed; In 2004, Anglia became part of the 'One' Railway franchise operated by the National Express Group (which was subsequently renamed National Express East Anglia). inheriting the fleet of seven units, for local services in Suffolk and Norfolk. Services operated by these units included Norwich to Sheringham and Great Yarmouth, Norwich to Lowestoft, they were also sometimes seen on the Ipswich to Ely Line.

Railway models

When the units were first introduced, Hurst models produced a detailing kit to convert a Dapol model of a 155 into a 153, however this was found to be a poor method of having a Class 153, since the Dapol model of the Class 155 wasn't good in the first place.

The Class 153 has been produced in OO scale by Hornby; Central Trains, First Northern Star, Northern Rail, Regional Railways, East Midlands Trains and Great Scenic Railways of Wessex and Cornwall (Wessex Trains) liveries. These models have been praised for their detail.

More recently, Dapol have announced a N Scale version.

References

1. "System Data for Mechanical and Electrical Coupling of Rail Vehicles". Retrieved 2009-01-05.
2. "Trains return to the Stourbridge Line - including Sundays". London Midland. 12 March 2009. Retrieved 11 April 2009.
3. "Stourbridge railcar receives its passenger licence". London Midland. 2 April 2009. Retrieved 11 April 2009.

External links

• Class 153 fleet listing from thejunction.org.uk

• Articles slanted towards recent events from October 2008
• British Rail diesel multiple units
• Leyland vehicles