Bachmann 32-940 GWR 150232 Class 150/2 2 Car DMU Great Western Railway Green Livery OO

£279.95
MRP £324.95
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(Product Ref 56473)
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Bristol St Philips Marsh based unit 150232 works stopping services on the routes spreading out from Bristol. West to Newport and Cardiff in South Wales, North to Gloucester, Worcester and Great Malvern, East to Swindon, South via Bath to Westbury, Southampton and via Frome to Weymouth and South West to Weston-super-Mare, Taunton and Exeter.
While the later class 166 Sprinter generation units displaced from the Thames Valley routes by new electric units have taken over some routes in 2017 the 150s continue to provide a reliable backbone for the local services, with some units being made up to 3 car formation to increase capacity.

In the mid-1970s British Rails diesel multiple unit fleet built up in the 1950s and 1960s was in need of improvement. Some classes of the diesel multiple units had proved highly successful and were being used far more extensively and on longer distance services than had originally been designed for. However the reliability of the 15 to 20 year old trains was beginning to decline and the interior passenger environment was dated when compared to the newest locomotive hauled stock. Formulating a national plan the less reliable classes were earmarked with early withdraw, while the later built types, which had benefited from the lessons learned from the earlier designs, were to be refurbished. This plan was intended to extend their service lives by 10 to 15 years while a second generation of diesel unit trains was designed.
Two designs of new DMU trains had evolved by the mid-1980s. The Pacer featured a body based on contemporary omnibus design on a 4-wheel chassis developed as a high speed self-propelled container carrier and the Sprinter, a more conventional bogie unit with cars designed around the Mk.3 coach body, with power-operated sliding doors. The less expensive Pacer units were to be developed for short distance services, while the Sprinter design was selected for longer distance and cross-country routes, where the better ride of the bogie cars at higher speeds could be exploited.

The first production Sprinter trains were class 150/1, entering service in 1986 (two 1984-built pre-production prototype units formed class 150/0). These first units had full-width end cabs and quickly this was revealed to be a mistake, as when two units were coupled together, the whole point of a multiple unit train, the guard could not walk through to the next unit, so an additional conductor was needed. The next built rectified this, class 150/2 featuring gangwayed ends and a drivers' 'cubicle', with the cab doors arranged so as to to close off the cab as a gangway, or the the vestibule, creating a full-width drivers cab. Class 150 units are also now being refurbished, with new seating and brighter LED lighting.
Excepting accident damaged cars all of the class 150 units remain in service, with the undamaged class 150/2 cars from accidents being formed as centre cars in 150/1 units to make 3-car formations.
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