May 1984 camcorder footage of Hastings DEMUs 

Was your father based at Purley then Beckenham ?

At 23:45, yes it appears so.

Yes, prior to the Eastleigh - Fareham electrification in the early 1990s, the Eastleigh - Portsmouth service was operated by DEMUs. I thought the term was 'bog cart'!

@@hastingsdiesels You are probably right - I was just calling them how I heard it. Can you tell me why some bog carts had a big black triangle on their yellow fronts?

The SR DEMUs' guard's van is next to the engine-room, and so for 2-car and 3-car DEMUs it would be useful for station staff to determine sooner whether the guard's van was at the front or back of an approaching train: this would enable them to be correctly positioned to offload and load parcels, so reducing delays.

Sorry, no idea - the videotape was sent in to us by a member of the public many years ago.

I agree with the sentiment. Unfortunately there were only 7 Hastings DEMUs that had buffet cars, and of those buffet cars only two survive but both have been heavily modified and one is still in use as the GM's Saloon. The options available to HDL for having buffet services on our train are either to use what we have, or to overhaul and restore an existing 1986-condition carriage AND convert it from scratch into a buffet - which would be many years' work and almost impossibly expensive. Note that having no buffet on our outings would be seen now as incredibly retrograde!

Fair enough. Exactly how many slim vehicles do you have?

The total number is 14. Please see our Fleet List here: www.hastingsdiesels.co.uk/1001/#fleetlist for full details.

Impressive. I thought that these had all been cut up. I had no idea that any, let alone 14 vehicles had been saved. That's great

Where are all your vehicles based?

Don't you mean the Class 119?

The four trailer coaches from the leading unit, 1007, were scrapped. The other vehicles were repaired and returned to service.

When the units are coupled together, they all work in multiple. That's the beauty of multiple-unit operation.

@@hastingsdiesels Yes thanks I wondered how they were connected , electronically or a hydraulic method maybe ?

It's electrical - the "27-way control wire" is as it says a 27-core cable that runs the length of the train, including between units when separate units are coupled together - the 27-way jumper is the cable very visible on the front of the train which hangs down in a loop and is plugged into a dummy plug (when not coupled up!) on the right-hand side in the direction of travel. The 27 wires include all the functions needed for train operation, including EP braking commands, master controller notches, all engine start, all engine stop, lighting, Loudaphone, and so forth. Re-purposing or multiplexing these to accommodate Public Address, Central Door Locking, et cetera, has been a significant technical challenge over the years!

@@hastingsdiesels Brilliant ! thanks for the excellent explanation ! :o)

Hastings Diesels Ltd I always wondered this!!! Thanks 😊