Class 124 Swindon Trans-Pennine 6-car DMUs
Liveries
The Green Era
Green with no whiskers
The sets were delivered in green with cream lining. Despite being delivered late on when whiskers had been added to many other types for visibility reasons, the Trans-Pennine sets never carried them.
A set is seen on a Hull - Liverpool working near Baltyeford (Spen Valley line) in January 1961. Photographer unknown. Stuart Mackay Collection.
Green with yellow panel
In 1962 yellow panels started to be added. Carrying this is a set in a snowy Huddersfield station, sometime in the mid to late 1960s. Malcolm Clements.
The Blue Era
Plain Blue?
David Faircloth notes: "I'm sure I've seen at least one in plain blue, with small white vehicle numbers; it would have been in summer 1968 as it was at Preston on the return evening working to Manchester from Blackpool. If there wasn't one painted plain blue, it means that not a single Trans Pennine vehicle was painted for a period of about 12 months. I was at Doncaster Works for 6 months between November 1966 and April 1967, and they were only painting DMU vehicles in all over blue initially with small yellow panels; all over yellow fronts started just before I left, and they included the driver's doors."[1]
Blue grey with yellow cab doors
Being classed as 'inter-city' vehicles they were painted into blue/grey much sooner that other types. The first examples (including 51960 and 51963) that were repainted had the yellow ends wrap around to also cover the cab doors. Another interesting feature with this variation was that the DMCs carried the vehicle number on the left end of the vehicle on both sides.
The embedded image from Flickr was taken at Doncaster Works in 1967. RW Carroll Collection.
Blue grey with yellow ends
A blue grey set departs from Leeds in April 1972. Mel Smith.
Blue grey with Trans-Pennine markings
In 1982 some DMCs began appearing with 'Trans-Pennine' hand painted in white on the non-drivers side. At this time they were operating as hybrid sets with Class 123s. Seen carrying this is E51956 at Leeds on June 25, 1982. John Carter. Others that had this were 51954/7, 51958 had it at least on the drivers side (other side unknown), 51966 had it on both sides.
References
- ⋏ Email David Fairlcoth to Stuart Mackay, 24 May 2021