Class 116 Derby 3-car Suburban DMUs

Decline

Very few 116s retired early and those that did were either accident victims or had suffered fire damage.

The 1980s (nominally 1983) saw the mass withdrawal of the Tyseley allocated early built TC cars (59000-31 series), which had by this time been down graded to TS status as had all of the Midland allocation of TC vehicles. The withdrawals being mainly due to their asbestos content, replacements for them were found in the form of spare Class 101 and 127 trailers, the 127s coming from the St. Pancras - Bedford line which had been recently electrified. Initially two types of set were formed, gangwayed using the class 101 trailers, and non-gangwayed using the Class 127 TS and TS(L) vehicles. The units treated being given Tyseley set numbers in the 6xx series for the gangwayed units the non-gangwayed sets retaining numbers in the 5xx range. As the 1980s progressed, the Class 127 trailers along with a number of trailers of Class 115 acquired from Allerton were gangway fitted, replacing Class 101 trailers in the Tyseley fleet. The availablity of the Class 127s saw that Class (in 3-car form) replace the 116s on the Gospel Oak - Barking services, those 116s being scheduled to move to Birmingham.

The most ignominious end to a 3-car set came when Scottish allocated unit 116391 consisting of cars SC53836/SC59347/SC53889 was, along with the grounded body of Park Royal railbus SC79971, buried in Paterson’s Tip, Mount Vernon in July 1984.

During the late 1980s Tyseley depot assembled around twenty 4-car hybrids to operate the Cross City line from Litchfield Trent Valley to Redditch via Birmingham New St. These units were made up of sometimes four different classes of vehicle. A Class 116 DMS was marshalled at one end, and a Class 115 DMBS acquired from Allerton (AN) or Marylebone (ME), at the other, plus two centre trailers which could be of Class 115, 116 or 127 or any combination. These hybrids were not known for their speed and one unit’s cab bore the pencil scribbled legend ‘The Snail’. These 4-car combinations created twenty or so redundant 116 DMBS vehicles, these were assembled back to back with a Class 127 TS(L) between, these reformed 116s were used widely and were capable of operating long distance routes as they now had toilet facilities. At this time Tyseley 116s operated over a wide geographical area which included, Holyhead and Blaenau Ffestiniog in the north west to Yarmouth in the east.

The image shows four-car set T410 (53124 + 59713 + 59602 + 51862) arriving at Barnt Green working the 14:23 Redditch - Lichfield City on 18th April 1992. Gazza Prescott.

Introduced in 1990 the so-called ‘Go Faster’ sets, consisted of three power cars marshalled together, for use on certain Valley Line diagrams, or three power and one trailer at Tyseley, for use on the Cross City line. The Cardiff units were assembled to give extra seating on certain journeys, with no power to weight loss as there would have been if a normal unpowered trailer were to be used. A small number of these 3-car combinations were assembled, employing a further Class 116 power car to an existing two car set, or the use of a Class 108 power unit sandwiched between a 116 2-car set. One of these units was made up of a Class 108 DMBS 51416 sandwiched between a 2-car BRCW Class 118 unit which had been acquired from Plymouth LA. The units involved were given new set numbers in the C9xx range except the 118 combo which retained it’s C472 set number. They were diagrammed to work the heavily loaded peak journeys in and out of Cardiff’s main stations (Central and Queen St). However due to lack of over night marshalling space at Canton depot these units were often unable to depart on the specified diagrams. This caused operating problems as they often ended up on journeys or even lines that were unsuitable. An example of this being the newly reopened Aberdare branch which had a number of new or rebuilt stations with platforms which could only accommodate a 2-car set. This resulted in one car having to be locked out of use defeating the whole object of the exercise, which included providing an extra conductor at the two main stations to take fares in the third car which could not be accessed from the main body of the train due to the presence of the driving cab of the middle car. Needless to say these sets were soon disbanded and all except two sets who’s set numbers became transposed, regained their previous set numbers. The Tyseley 4-car units received a substitute power car in place of one of their trailers to improve power and consequently speed, until the delayed introduction of the replacement electrification was complete, but as these units dwindled through failure and withdrawal a number of 3-car all powered sets were assembled. 2-car sets were also common in Cardiff and Tyseley during the last years of 116 operation, these taking the form of 116 DMBS cars paired generally with Class 101 or 108 DMCs downgraded to DMS.

By 1992 all the remaining Cardiff allocated units were transferred to Tyseley where they were used to replace other worn out units until the final withdrawal of all the Class 116's from passenger service in 1995. The last cars in revenue earning service being; 53053, 53055, 53132 and 53921, three of those (not 53055) were formed into a set labelled as 117333. At least one 116 4-car unit was hired to the Channel Tunnel Contract Group during 1994.

In a life span of some 38 years the Derby Suburban class 116 units had served at a total of eighteen BR depots in England, Scotland and Wales.