The Vehicles
Introduction to set 101 692s formation
692 was created in June 1992 as part of a batch of
'new' sets sent through works before being allocated to Haymarket. The DMBS came
from Laira, the DMS from Norwich and the TC was already a HA vehicle.
The pre-692 history for the three vehicles can be found by navigating the menu on the left.
During refurbishment at Doncaster they were given Regional Railways livery with Scotrail branding.
Glasgow
Once Class 117 sets took over the Fife services, they moved west to Corkerhill depot working out of Glasgow Central, losing centre car and gaining Strathclyde livery. A picture in this livery appears in the Brian Morrison book "British Rail DMUs & Diesel Railcars", on p63, dated 26/1/96.
59303 became part of set 683, one of two 3-car sets (the other being 685 and painted green) formed in 1994 for summer use on the Blaneau Ffestiniog branch. The centre cars from these sets were be stored at Chester during winter months. They weren't used in the summer 1997 season onwards, and eventually moved to storage at Blackpool Carriage Sidings until bought for preservation in 2004. Note that the second centre car, 59539, also ran with 52353 at Laira in 1991!
The power cars had a C4 at Glasgow Works in August 1995.When Strathclyde Passenger Transport introduced a new service between Motherwell & Cumbernauld on 26th May 1996 it repainted 692 into its special blue livery. The set was a regular on the service in these early days. It was also appropriate that the set also operated the final 101 working on this service, on the 27th May 2000.
Manchester
The vehicle had various off-lease dates quoted against it, such as 29/3/02 and 9/5/02. It was dragged to Glasgow Works on 9/5/02 by 47732 for a mini-C4 overhaul. At the end of the year it spent some time out of use with a seized flywheel following a flywheel fire. In February '03 it was fitted with TPWS at Newton Heath.
Withdrawal
On the 30th October 2003 the set was taken out of traffic, reported as having one engine seized and another with fuel starvation. The last entry in the defect book in 53253, dated 30th Oct., stated "Smells of diesel fuel in this cab all the time".
After withdrawal, the vehicles sat at Longsight and had some parts (gearbox, heaters, batteries) removed to keep the other sets in traffic. No doubt this led to the set being sent straight for scrapping at Caerwent in South Wales rather than going to Shoeburyness with the rest of the 'survivors'.
DMBS 53253 arrived on Thursday 8th January 2004. Some hasty phonecalls prevented dismantling of the vehicle until it could be inspected by preservationists on the Saturday morning, and the purchase of the set was confirmed after a report on the condition of the DMS. It's arrival was delayed from the Friday, first by the lorry driver being out of hours then on the Monday a lorry breakdown. It arrived on the Tuesday morning (13th).
The vehicles could not be moved to their new home until the Sales Agreement had been received from Angel Trains, which didn't appear till August!
Their history continues on the Preservation Pages.