The Class 153 appreciation club.

[Dave]

It had to be done. You can't forget the dogboxes.

[andel]

153311 for the win!

[Kevo00]

Bless the humble 153. I was once on a 153 that ran out of fuel on the ECML at Chester Le Street on the old Metrocentre-Saltburn via Darlington services (introduced to use the 153 by BR, scrapped by the SRA to make more room for Voyagers). It made an enjoyable two hours to be stranded under a bridge, but the funny thing is that the then Regional Railways North East were too poor to afford any proper thunderbirds and had to bring another 153 from Heaton Depot to rescue the stricken 153. The poor rescue 153 didn't even have enough power to pull the broken down 153 and we crawled at 5-10mph all the way to Newcastle. Of course the poor 153s were only pawns in a game of driver and management incompetence.

Needless to say I wrote in to complain about this, and got my fare refunded.

[Badger]

Technically it was a 155 then!!

[Ameecher]

Technically it was a 155 then!!

Except that the 155s have proper width door vestibules at both ends of the carraige, not the 153 style where the door is full width but the corridor behind is about a foot narrower...

[Badger]

Eh, close enough!

[Kevo00]

It would have been a very substandard 155 with its low top speed.

[Badger]

Saw several of these miserable excuses for trains today - one had a very irritating rattle while the engine was idling, it got a whole lot worse when it actually moved off!

[teccuk]

Technically it was a 155 then!!

Hey I used to get that train to work!!! Not that i noticed the number or anything of course...

No but seriously, it smelt funny. Really musty.

[Dave]

Very true. They all do. I think there is an issue with the drainage from the vehicle when it is used during rain. The majority smell very musty indeed.

Some just smell like there's been a stoner party in there, but that's life, eh?

[teccuk]

Ah yes! Thats the smell! They smell of pot