Class 117 Pressed Steel 3-car DMUs
Non Passenger Use
Channel Tunnel
Released from Birmingham Cross-City duties by the electrification, set T309 (51372 + 59490 + 51414) went on hire to TransManche Link (TML) to provide staff transportation.
It arrived at Cheriton on 27 November 1992, and services began on 7 December. So as not to impede construction traffic, it had to work on a first-in last-out basis, between Shakespeare Cliff and the midipoint running non-stop to the Crossover Cavern. This meant that for the majority of the time the set would not be visible, refuelling would be done in the tunnel and it would only emerge for essential maintenance. It had special dispensation to run at 37mph (60 kph).[1]
Another two sets - T303 (51364 + 59516 + 51406) and Class 119 T596 - would later join it. Their use was finished by the end of the year.
(I guess that strictly speaking this was not "non-passenger" use but I have put it in this section as it was not regular public use.)
Sandite
51349 + 51391 may have been used as a Sandite set at Tyseley during the 1994 leaf fall season as set T006. New numbers were not allocated to the vehicles.[2]
Water Jetting Train
Three vehicles became the Chiltern Railways water jetting train.
Two cars were converted in 2003:
977987 ex 51371
977988 ex 51413
A third was added in 2004, being a powered centre vehicle. This was converted from previously preserved DMS, which had the cab cut off and a gangway end added:
977992 ex 51375
The unit carried the set number 960301, and it's pictured in the sidings at Aylesbury in January 2007 by Fred Clark.
Misc
This may be classed as a 'non-passenger' 117, as it was made for the public, but they certainly never travelled anywhere in it. This is a wooden mock-up, numbered 51401, containing a cinema which seated 62, an information bureau and "sectioned scale models which operated at the touch of a button". Built for the "Boys' and Girls' Exhibition" held at Olympia in the early 1960s.