Sprinter of the Railway Part 10! East Midlands Railway 156401 Crewe - Kidsgrove

Recorded date - 4/5/2021
East Midlands Railway 156401
British Rail Class 156 Diesel Multiple Unit
Service: 1K20 16:07 Crewe - Derby

Welcome to another onboard train video and Part 10 of this series where I focus on the Sprinter series of DMUs, in this one we take a ride onboard East Midlands Railway 156401.

With British Rail realising that the first generation DMUs they had would require a lot of money spent on them they looked to brand new units that would be cheaper to run and give better reliability, thus the class 150 was born, but that wouldn't be enough to replace other older stock they had so between 1987 and 1989 the Class 156 came into existence with 114 units being built at MetroCammells Washwood Heath works. All 114 units come in 2 carriage configuration and each coach is powered with a 285hp six-cylinder Cummins diesel engine coupled to a Voith hydraulic transmission giving the 156 a top speed of 75mph.

On 10 November 1987, 156401 conducted its first test run from Washwood Heath to Banbury. Between January and July 1988, 156401-156429 were delivered to Crown Point TMD entering service on 16 May 1988 on new services from East Anglia to North West England as well as existing services from Norwich and Cambridge to Birmingham. Currently all 114 remain in service with them being split between Northern Rail, East Midlands Railway (all but a few will be transferring to Northern Rail) and Scotrail.

156401 is recorded between the starting point of the service at Crewe and after passing Alsager it ends at the first calling point which is Kidsgrove.