Chase line back in the day

[Bob]

Does anyone have any photos of the early days of the Chase line?  Ie before the Sprinters?  I remember a rare heritage DMU with huge mega comfy seats on one occasion which would've been probably a class 115, but also regularly a train with bus type seats in the main. What was the regular allocation ie which class of heritage DMU?  Did it ever see class 101s used? I remember them being far more comfortable and having more character than the class 170 that we get today with the lack of seats and bad overcrowded carriages

[Walsall1955]

I took a couple of photos of a DMU passing the Newtown open cast coal sidings in 1990:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/walsall1955/5172309186/in/album-72157625374816990/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/walsall1955/5172309200/

[Bob]

And capacity was obviously better then too!

[Other Walsall Tony]

And fewer passengers?

[Kevin]

And less trains per hour
And slower trains

But we'll gloss over that, shall we?

[Tony]

And fewer passengers?

And of course kicking everybody off in Walsall to wait for another train which sometimes had just left if the chase one was late because those units were so knackered.

[Bob]

Well I'd say travelling on them was far more pleasurable than the shitty 2 car 4.42 from new st that was red hot and dangerously overcrowded.  And only less trains per hour in the peaks. And to be fair the service is still shite now. Don't recall it being so bloody awful that MPs had to get involved back then?

[Bob]

If your travelling between 4 and 530 and don't actually want to be squashed stood up and dangerously overcrowded and actually want to sit down as far as walsall your best bet is catching two trains anyway

[Bob]

I caught that train dozens of times as a kid and don't ever remember them being that bad. What we're the main units used?

[Tony]

Well I'd say travelling on them was far more pleasurable than the shitty 2 car 4.42 from new st that was red hot and dangerously overcrowded.  And only less trains per hour in the peaks. And to be fair the service is still shite now. Don't recall it being so bloody awful that MPs had to get involved back then?

Are you kidding Bob. It was awful. I have been catching it almost every day since 1992. The DMU's were so unreliable you never knew if they were going to turn up, no real time displays or internet to ask. They stank of fumes. The power/trailer combination two cars used to struggle to get up Landywood bank. The track was still only 'freight quality' with many 20 mph restrictions, so much so that one unit could only just manage to do Walsall-Hednesford(not Rugeley) in the hour, so just got later throughout the day. Connections were not held at Walsall. I had a couple of 29 minute waits at Walsall as the Birmingham train departed as the Hednesford arrived. The fact there was only one unit in service at any time meant any failure was a complete cancellation of all services.

[Tony]

I caught that train dozens of times as a kid and don't ever remember them being that bad. What we're the main units used?

It was any two carriages Tyseley could muster. As the West Midlands was one of the last areas using these DMUs almost any make of heritage DMU could appear. Only decent units were when they coupled two power cars together.

[Bob]

Like I say we never had any issues but only used it to Walsall.  So what was the journey time from Hednesford to Walsall then? I quite liked the Heritage DMUs they certainly had more character than the 170s which are dreadful. Hot vile and smelly in warm weather. People have actually passed out on there. Class 153s are more suited to it due to more seats and fresh air being available!

[Bob]

It must have been 3 car at times. Looking at the photos? Were the trailer units class 127 sometimes?

[Tony]

It literally was whatever was available at Tyseley.

That set is a bodge up as it has two brake 116 vehicles either side of either a 115 or 127 centre car, both were identical to the eye, so impossible to tell the class of the centre car

[Tony]

Here's a class 45 at Bloxwich in 1982. Note the 20mph speed restriction board. One of many!