Pacers are no more.

[whole diary]

[stuving]

This does not look like anything other than an early days start up - it shares its office address with Startford upon Avon Citizens Advice Bureau.

Could there be something more useful if they were designed to be two car units, with perhaps a capacity of 120+ (assuming that space released by deleting inner cabs is released for seats)?

We'll know that it's a chimera when the next Go-op proposal is for them to be used on their next wishful route proposal..........

More relevantly, the address is that of loads of companies linked to Rupert Symons, a patent agent, and  director of VLR Technologies Ltd. All the real work will be done in the various collaborating companies, which are:
    TDI
    EVERSHOLT RAIL
    WMG
    CUMMINS
    RDM GROUP
    TRANSCAL
    RSSB^▸ (Rail Safety and Standards Board)
    PROSE

Eversholt talk as if they expect to buy the final product in numbers, but describe the first one as a demonstrator - so we still don't know how close they think that is to a real product. Cummins's presence may explain the use of diesel power, though perhaps not the lack of future decarbonic alternatives. They (Cummins) are thinking quite hard about their strategy in this area, though seem to be uncertain as to what will work in trains in the future. 
 

[broadgage]

I can the merit in lightweight bus-like rail vehicles for secondary routes, including commuter services on the Minehead branch and similar places.
Toilets are in my view a requirement even for very short journeys, and that in turn means a disabled toilet, which suggests the need for either two vehicles or a long and articulated vehicle.

I appreciate that most buses do not have toilets, but bus passengers can alight to relieve themselves, whereas the policy on trains is "keep them on the trains no matter what" Remember the Lewisham stranding and the appalling conditions suffered by victims on board trains "that don't need toilets for journeys of less than 30 minutes"

With the concerns about climate change, I agree that we should not be building any more rail vehicles with diesel engines, with the possible exception of nominally electric vehicles with a small diesel engine for use when the wires come down.
Battery power is now a realistic alternative.

[jamestheredengine]

I can the merit in lightweight bus-like rail vehicles for secondary routes

The problem is that so many of the obvious routes for this sort of thing were shut down in the 60s. Neath Riverside to Hereford via Brecon is the one that immediately springs to mind for me. I'd quite enjoy a ride up to Brecon or Hay in something like that.

[Bmblbzzz]

Toilets are in my view a requirement even for very short journeys, and that in turn means a disabled toilet, which suggests the need for either two vehicles or a long and articulated vehicle.

I agree on the need for toilets. However, I question whether that means a need for two vehicles. It's not a case of "toilet" and "disabled toilet"; a toilet accessible to the disabled will also be accessible to the abled. The rail-bus simply needs to be a reasonable size to have one toilet accessible to all, and many or most coaches manage this in a length of 12 metres, so it shouldn't be a problem.

[grahame]

I can the merit in lightweight bus-like rail vehicles for secondary routes

The problem is that so many of the obvious routes for this sort of thing were shut down in the 60s. Neath Riverside to Hereford via Brecon is the one that immediately springs to mind for me. I'd quite enjoy a ride up to Brecon or Hay in something like that.

I worry about routes that only support single vehicle trains - the Bubble cars used to be known as "Coffin Nails" because the next step was closure.  But I am VERY thankful for the 153s that ran on the TransWilts for a handful of years until our traffic outgrew them.

Wouldn't it be lovely to see some re-openings in Wales - and some growth on existing lines - but really the aspiration should be a traffic level to require trains of 2 carriages at least.   I'm noting that Prof Stuart Cole, who knows a thing or four about trains and buses, advocates a rise to a two hourly service on the Heart of Wales, and with something at least twice as long as a 153.

As part routes providing the outer end, or where multiple routes fan out, there might just be a place for these - Swansea to Clarbeston Road where the hourly train divides, portions to Fishguard, Milford Haven and Neyland perhaps?

[TonyN]

The RLVR vehicle now has a Demonstrator setup at Ironbridge.

https://transportdesigninternational.com/launching-revolution-very-light-rail-rvlr/

[ellendune]

The RLVR vehicle now has a Demonstrator setup at Ironbridge.

https://transportdesigninternational.com/launching-revolution-very-light-rail-rvlr/

What is its crash resistance like?

[Electric train]

The RLVR vehicle now has a Demonstrator setup at Ironbridge.

https://transportdesigninternational.com/launching-revolution-very-light-rail-rvlr/

What is its crash resistance like?

As it has RSSB^▸ (Rail Safety and Standards Board), DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) backing I would expect it to be fully compliant.

[ellendune]

The RLVR vehicle now has a Demonstrator setup at Ironbridge.

https://transportdesigninternational.com/launching-revolution-very-light-rail-rvlr/

What is its crash resistance like?

As it has RSSB^▸ (Rail Safety and Standards Board), DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) backing I would expect it to be fully compliant.

Compliant with what standard?

What I meant was - does being a very light rail mean there is a reduced requirement for crash resistance or is it expected to acheive the same as heavy rail?

[stuving]

Compliant with what standard?

What I meant was - does being a very light rail mean there is a reduced requirement for crash resistance or is it expected to acheive the same as heavy rail?

They seem to have ducked that question. As a demonstrator it can be made without formal requirements in all areas, on a "lets see how far we can go with the innovative bits" basis. The trials are planned to use "a segregated alignment (a route protected from interaction with roads, cars and other traffic)". I note that the design includes actual buffers, no doubt to put some explicit energy absorption mechanism into a composite structure that provides very little implicitly.

Going back to the subject of bogies, not resolved earlier on, they are not using any fancy new carbon-fibre ones. That was a parallel project with its own timescale and timescale risks, so I can see they would not want to be coupled to it. If that works it would no doubt give a further weight reduction.

They are in fact using the LN25 bogie, which is basically the same old TF25 bogie used on big goods wagons since 2001. It's made by Axiom, originally Powell Duffryn rail and now part of Wabtec Faively. So I don't imagine it's at all light, even before they attached motors and/or couplings to it.

[johnneyw]

As a quick update on the Pacers in preservation, it seems that the units that went to the Wensleydale Railway have now been purchased by the Weardale railway.  A few more details below.

https://www.railadvent.co.uk/2022/09/weardale-railway-purchases-wensleydale-railway-based-class-142-pacer-train.html

[infoman]

What would be the cost of buying these units?

[johnneyw]

What would be the cost of buying these units?

I don't know if the Weardale railway website has any details on this but it might appear later in their published annual accounts.

[grahame]

From the Shropshire Star

The 'secret' train being tested in Shropshire that could revolutionise rural rail journeys

Deep in the heart of the Ironbridge Power Station site, a futuristic-looking train glides along in almost total silence.

[snip]

Those behind it say it "reduces all aspects of operating costs" on branch lines.

[snip]

The role of Revolution is to extend the outreach of the railway, principally helping to achieve modal shift from road to rail, which we all know is needed for the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) to meet its climate change obligations," explained Tim. "It's really a vehicle that is optimised for relatively short operations on segregated branch lines that run into mainline railways.

[snip]
The demonstration vehicle has 56 seats, which is said to often be more than enough for the shorter routes it's designed to run on. This would release longer, heavier trains, to be redeployed in busier areas where the extra seats and standing room they'd provide would be needed.

For those wanting to reopen a railway, Revolution VLR is said to be the answer. Tim explained that by being lighter, the vehicle would not subject any older track still in place to the same stresses as a traditional train, which could allow a railway to be reopened "under budget and ahead of schedule", or in stages.

One of the benefits the train is being tested at Ironbridge is putting that theory to the test; it's been 60 years since the site last saw passenger trains, and coming up to a decade since the last coal trains served the now-demolished power station. Since then, the track has been left in place, but with minimal work it's able to take the weight of Revolution VLR.

Looking at our GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) area and a little beyond, unused / freight only potentially detached branch lines strike me as relatively few - Andover to Ludgershall and perhaps Bedminster to Pill and Newton Abbot to Heathfield and Okehampton to Meldon Platform. Others could be heritage lanes when no heritage trains running - Paignton to Kingswear, Totnes to Buckfastleigh, Alton to Alresford, Lyndney to Parkend and Bodmin Parkway to Town.  The expense of bringing a notnetwork service onto the mainline is illustrated by the extraordinary lengths the Swanage folks have gone to and with mainline running there would be heritage potential to Swanage and to Minehead.  Freight branches that connect with the mainline without interchanges shy of the junction include Cwm Bargoed, two lines into Tondu, Fowey and Thornbury.  But ... some such as Parkend and Cwm Bargoed would be journeys to nowhere and others such as Swanage and Minehead would be hard pressed to cope with a single carriage train. 

[broadgage]

Sounds a potentially useful idea, but I doubt the suitability of a single car for most likely routes, the passenger capacity is less than that of many buses.
Presumably a two car unit could be produced, this should be cheaper per seat than a single car.