DMU Operations: North Eastern Region
The new DMUs delivered to the North Eastern Region were almost all 56ft low density DMUs, the exception being the Trans-Pennine sets for the Hull-Liverpool services. They also had the distinction of being the first to introduce "First Generation" DMUs into traffic on the Leeds-Bradford route.
The types of DMU it had new were:
| Type | Formations | Sets | Vehicles |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red Triangle Derby Lightweights | 2-car power twins | 8 | 16 |
| Yellow Diamond Derby Lightweights | 2-car 4-car |
4 5 |
8 20 |
| Class 101s | 2-car power trailer 2-car power twin 3-car 4-car |
63 30 3 38 |
126 60 9 152 |
| Class 104s | 2-car 4-car |
5 26 |
10 104 |
| Class 105s | 2-car | 31 | 63 |
| Class 108s | 2-car 3-car 4-car |
21 5 6 |
42 15 24 |
| Class 110s | 3-car | 20 | 60 |
| Class 111s | 3-car | 20 | 60 |
| Class 124s | 6-car | 8 | 51 |
| Totals: | 293 | 820 |
The Class 101s vastly outnumber any other type the region had, making up 134 of the original 293 sets — almost half.
The main operating bases were Newcastle, Bradford, Leeds, Darlington and Hull.
As transfers took place it would later have Class 100/116/118/119s and a German Railbus for a short period.
In January 1967 the North Eastern merged with the Eastern — the name of the latter was kept.
In the early years of DMU operation "Day-Line Diesel" rover tickets were available encouraging people to travel on the DMUs.
Introduction Dates
Some significant DMU introduction dates, from notes compiled by John Thomlinson:
1954
14/6/54 Bradford Exchange-Leeds Central (Red Triangle Derby Lightweights)
1955
21/11/55 Newcastle-Middlesbrough (Derby Lightweight quads)
1957
7/1/57 Hull-Scarborough (Cravens 503xx)
7/1/57 Hull-Hornsea (Cravens 503xx)
7/1/57 Hull-Withernsea (Cravens 503xx)
4/2/57 Newcastle-Carlisle (Quad sets, buffet sets from summer 1960)
25/2/57 Bradford Exchange-Wakefield Westgate
25/2/57 Leeds Central-Castlefield Central
25/2/57 Leeds Central-Wakefield
c. April Leeds (Wellington)- Bradford Forster Square-Ilkley-Skipton
c. April Middlesbrough-Whitby (trials with Met-Camm quads)
19/8/57 Darlington-Saltburn
19/8/57 Darlington-Richmond
16/9/57 Darlington-Crook
1958
3/3/58 Leeds-Barnsley (via Normanton and Wakefield)
March or April Huddersfield-Wakefield (Hammerton Street 50270 sets etc)
March or April Bradford Exchange-Wakefield-Goole
March or April Leeds-Castleford-Pontefract
18/8/58 York-Harrogate (using Darlington Quads)
18/8/58 Newcastle - Sunderland
18/8/58 Sunderland-South Shields
1959
5/1/59 Bradford Forster Square-Keighley-Skipton
5/1/59 Hull-Brough
5/1/59 Hull-Selby-Leeds City
5/1/59 York-Sheffield (Sheffield Midland's first DMUs)
6/4/59 Malton-Whitby
2/11/59 Bradford Exchange & Huddersfield-Penistone & Clayton West (51425-34 power twins)
1960
7/3/60 York-Scarborough (mostly through services from Leeds)