#class 144

On The Rails - 2nd Gen DMUs

British Rail Class 144 Pacer

At the beginning of the 1980s British Rail (BR) had a large fleet of ageing "Heritage" DMUs, built to many different designs in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Some of the more reliable types were retained and refurbished. However, BR decided to replace many of the non-standard or unreliable types with new second generation units, built to modern standards. Two different types were pursued; low-cost "Pacers" built using bus parts and used on short-distance services and "Sprinters" built for longer-distance services.

Twenty-three Class 144 units were built. The units have a maximum speed of 75 mph (121 km/h) and are externally similar to the earlier Class 143 Pacers (they have a Walter Alexander body like the Class 143), built in 1985–1986. The first thirteen of the class, No. 144001-013 are 2-car units. The remaining ten, No. 144014-023 are all 3-car units, although all were originally built as 2-car units, the centre vehicle being added later. These ten Pacers are the only Pacers to contain intermediate vehicles.

Units are formed of two driving motors, one of which contains a toilet. The 3-car units have an additional intermediate motor. All vehicles have standard-class seating only. The technical description of the formation is DMS+(MS)+DMSL. Individual vehicles are numbered as follows.

55801-55823 - DMS

55850-55859 - MS (units 144014-023 only)

55824-55846 - DMSL

The Class 144 units have BSI couplers. This allows them to work in multiple with Class 142, Class 143, Class 150, Class 153, Class 155, Class 156, Class 158, Class 159 and Class 170 units, as well as units of the same class.

Future

The Rail Vehicle Accessibility (Interoperable Rail System) Regulations 2008 require that all public passenger trains must be accessible by 1 January 2020. No Pacer trains (except the prototype Class 144e) currently meet this requirement. Porterbrook has proposed an extensive refurbishment of the Class 143 and 144 units in an attempt to meet this requirement, although this would reduce the number of seats. All will be withdrawn by December 2019. They are required to order at least 120 new self-powered vehicles and are permitted to take on Sprinter and Turbostar units released by other franchises. The Long Term Passenger Rolling Stock Strategy for the Rail Industry indicates up to 500 non-electric carriages will need to be built in the short term. Withdrawals are scheduled to commence in September 2018 with the last to be removed from traffic in March 2019.

Class 144e