Swindon Inter-City 79xxx series 3/6-car DMUs

Non-passenger and foreign use

Liberia

Five of the withdrawn leading power cars (79091/3/4/6/7) were exported to Africa to work miner's trains on the LAMCO system in Liberia (four were refurbished by St. Rollox en-route). Fitted with cowcatchers and headlamps, for a while they retained their blue grey livery (with "LAMCO Inter-City" markings on the bodyside) before receiving the LAMCO orange colours with a thick center white stripe. One vehicle was seriously damaged around 1983 after hitting a lorry on a crossing - it was disposed off by being pushed into a swamp. Soon after the use of the other vehicles declined. The railway was abandoned during the civil war, and pictures that emerged afterwards showed just rusting shells remained, as depicted in the two images by Thomas Johannesson taken in 2009 in the former workshop / yard at Yekepa, robbed of pretty much everything. Mining had begun again in the area this time with the firm Mittal, and the railway has been re-opened but stopping just short of the old workshops.

Departmental Mess Coach

Only one vehicle saw departmental use. Withdrawn from Leith Central on 19th October 1972, 79098 was initially stored at Millerhill Yard. It had moved to Cadder Yard by July 1974, a storage point for vehicles en-route to Polmadie for component recovery. There is no evidence that 79098 made it to Polmadie, but it moved to Carlisle before the 11th November 1974, the date it left Carlisle for Swindon Works, for component recovery. From Swindon it moved to Bletchley on 17th April 1975.

79098 was converted at Bletchley TMD during 1975/76 for use as a mess coach in its Breakdown Train Unit (BTU), the was conversion done by the staff in-between their normal duties. The inside of the coach was completely gutted and split into lounge, dining and kitchen sections, whilst an electrical system to supply the modern cooker and heater was added. Constant hot and cold water was installed by building water tanks into the roof space. It was allocated the departmental number ADB975426 and painted into a reddich colour with a yellow stripe down the cab front. The bodyside had the text 'Breakdown Train Bletchley TMD', with Max Speed 60 MPH on the cab side. The image shows the vehicle soon after conversion at Bletchley. Ian McDonald.

It’s use was shortlived, as in 1977 Bletchley was allocated ADB975460, a BREL-converted Breakdown Train staff and tool coach, and so the DMU car was sent to Westhouses to join other BTU coaches awaiting a decision on their fate. Impressed by the conversion, it was acquired by the CCE although it still retained its BTU branding and TOPS prefix. It was noted at Belper on the 18th September 1978 (possibly en-route to Westinghouses), noted as stored at Westhouses in 1980, and seen at Cambridge on 21/5/82 en-route to Snailwell for breaking.

The image shows it at Westhouses depot on 1st December 1979. External changes include the sealing up of the cab door, plating over of the stencil box, removal of windscreen wipers, the brackets above the cab windows held flootlights (which pointed down) when originally converted. Howard Johnston.