I moved in to South Wales in late 1986 and these old school DMU's were running until about 1990, going through Caerphilly Tunnel on these was awesome hellfire, until being replaced with Class 150 Sprinter's and Class 142/143 Pacer Units. These should make a comeback,
she is a beast iv been on her all day (28/12/18) going like hell been windo hanging all day the noise was👌 and next year i may be on driver training to drive her😁
What a lovely fart you get from these, especially when revving up. Now I know why I used to call these Bog Units when I was 12, that and sticking yah head out of the window in the tunnel up near Edale (New Mills / Sheffield), just loved it :D
@HORNEBEEDUBLO Some northern rail service are short of roolling stock and more used trains should be due soon with 150 trains from london midland arrgh! Had an awful 150 today with some idling vibrations from northern rail the outward was the 142 with eaier boarding at my station as the 156 have a high step up on the manchester bound platform.
@hamsterbus I too have always hated the 150s. The 150/1 'furnaces' are the worst. The interior engine howling noise really annoys me as does the poor lineside visibility. It is annoying that this class went into production rather than the superior Metro Cammell Class 151 design. I prefer 142s any day! Northern look set to get some of the 150s displaced by new 172s, personally I'd rather they didn't and pension off some of their own 150 fleet too!
@hamsterbus Yes, just the first 15 production GMT Olympians had TL11s, the rest Gardner. Besides keeping the Gardner works open, I suspect it was because the Gardner was more reliable and more fuel efficient
@hamsterbus TL11 were a bit rare to me as under 25 buses were fitted locally with them all now withdrawn with the odd one or two in preservation. GMT had more gardner powered olympians that leyland examples to try and keep the old Gardner works in business in Eccles.
@hamsterbus You may have noticed that the new Class 172s have ZF mechanical transmission rather than Voith hydraulic. This is because there are a lot of stops and there is a 10% saving on fuel. It wouldn't make a difference on limited stop services. I prefer mechanical transmission as they are quieter. I can tell the difference between the TL11 and Gardner 6LXB! I know of a Leyland PD3 bus that has been fitted with a TL11 with the turbo removed. It sounds exactly the same as an O.600 or O.680!
@hamsterbus A couple of TL11 powered Olympians did survive for a short time after the last Atlantean withdrawals in 2002, they were the last Leyland engined buses in the First Manchester fleet. Some of the last F reg ex GM Olympians (Gardner/ZF) lasted longer in other First and Stagecoach fleets. First Manchester also operated ex West Yorks Metrobuses in Manchester and had some Cummins L10 powered Norther Counties G and K reg Olympians operating in Wigan around 2005. Not sure of their origins.
@hamsterbus I've never been on a 127 either and looking at the videos of them on here I don't think that I'd would want to! The power cars were withdrawn early as the Rolls Royce 8 cylinder engines and hydraulic transmissions were unreliable and prone to fires. The majority of 158s and 159s have Cummins NTA855R engines as on the 150s but are 350hp. A minority of 158s have Perkins Phaser engines as on the 165 & 166s which is based on the Rolls Royce Eagle engine.
@hamsterbus I've been watching a couple of videos on here of preserved BR Class 127s. They don't look that pleasant. The 150s seem to be a 1980s version of these! Don't you think?
@hamsterbus Perkins did end up owning Gardner. I haven't been on 165s or 166s, but I have been on Perkins powered 158s and 142084 when it was experimentally fitted with Perkins engines.
@hamsterbus Wow! All Pacers were built with the Leyland TL11 (the updated, turbocharged and unreliable version of the O.680)! They also had an updated and unreliable version of the first generation DMU SCG gearbox. How about fitting them with a DAF 1160 engine (based on the 680) with a ZF mechanical gearbox as used on the Class 172s?...!
@HORNEBEEDUBLO The TL11 wasn't a relaible engine and the 6LXB was prone to smoking and poor emissions even though more relible and fuel effiecnent. A spate of olypmpian failures happened in 2005 as they suffered from around 20 years of hard slog with nearly all the gardner examples with first manchester having to be withdrawn en masse and replaced by MK1 B7RLE buses. The letylnad examples were withdrawn back back around 2001 the same time as the last atleanteans with first manchester.
@HORNEBEEDUBLO Never been on a 127 yet but they sound similar to later 15x examples but not the 158 or 159 though as these had different engines to class 150, 153, 155 and 156 units. Some of the earlier units don't seem to whine as much now to when they were newer is the 80's and early 90's if only the equipment was cheaper back then!
@HORNEBEEDUBLO Went on the old unrefubished 142 when i was a kid with the double leaf folding doors too. Not the slower rigid doors they now have. I remeber the rubfurbished state more well. I'm abit terrible in identfyinfg TL11 engees as they sound similar to a gardner 6LXB. Would some units benfit from mechinacal gearbox rather than the hydraulic ones?
@HORNEBEEDUBLO There were some ex-hong kong tri axle eamples that use to be at quenen's rd and usually worklked the 17 service. i caught one later from norwich to great yarmouth as they were later transferred to eastern counties. Some K reg cunnins ubits were from bristol and london (capital citybus) andsome G reg from west yorkshire. Some later volvo powered olypiams can from Go-ahead London M reg and some possibly some new to cambus with P plates with voith geraboxes.
@HORNEBEEDUBLO I've not yet ridden a 172 yet as they're only on the goblin line at the moment but some may appear round birmingham soon that's a fair bit nearer to me. I have a pet hate of the 80s cummins diesel units aka class 15X as all sound terrible to me with the voith hydruallic gearbox with more hi-speed engine running at lower speeds under 45 mph. Mechanical gearboxes tend to burn more fuel at high speeds as the gearing is fixed and they can lower the hydraulic speed over 45mph.
Come on lets stick an old leyland 680 engine in a pacer with some crappy northern rail maintaince throun in should the voith gearbox be replaced with a mechanical one to add to the effect none of that fast slow those voith hydraulic gearboxes have on most boggos to get rid of the fast slow effect of those gearboxes. What about transplating an atlantean runningnunit on a pacer?
