Sprinter of the Railway Part 9! Transport for Wales 153369 Helsby - Chester

Recorded date - 21/4/2021
Transport for Wales 153369
British Rail Class 153 Diesel Multiple Unit
1B05 09:14 Liverpool Lime Street - Chester

Welcome to another onboard train video and Part 9 of this series where I focus on the Sprinter series of DMUs, in this one we take a ride onboard Transport for Wales 153369.

British Rails plan for replacing their 1st generation DMUs and loco halued stock was a large scale order of Sprinter DMUs with the 150s entering service first, but with plenty of stock to replace they needed more so between 1987 and 1988 the Class 155 was built by Leyland at their Workington plant which included incorporating some Leyland National bus components in the design. 42 were built and were similar to the 156 in being 2 carriages, having a 6 cylinder Cummins engine in each carriage producing 285hp each and coupled to a Voith hydraulic transmission with a top speed of 75mph.

However in the early 1990s 35 of the 155 were split into single carriage railcars and reclassified as 153s, The class was intended for service on rural branch lines where passenger numbers do not justify longer trains, or to boost the capacity on trains with high passenger volume. While a good number remain in service, mainly with Transport for Wales a large amount have gone into storage while 2 of them have been scrapped with 3 more now being with Network Rail.

Transport for Wales picked up up a bunch of Class 153 DMUs from East Midlands Railway and Greater Anglia to join their own examples on routes across Wales and parts of England which would allow their 150/2s to, along with the 769s, replace the 142 and 143 Pacers that were ready for withdrawal in Cardiff. Here we have fully repainted/refurbed 153369 working the 09:14 Liverpool Lime Street to Chester service.