"At the time, all of the as yet unbuilt Turbostars in Porterbrook’s speculative batch were designated Class 170/3. So as of September 1998, Central was set to take thirteen Class 170/5s, and twenty Class 170/3s."
At Birmingham New Street on the night of 12th November 2003, 170522 illustrates the colourful Central Trains heyday.
Immediately after a marathon pictorial on the Central Trains Class 158s, it was as good a time as any to dedicate something similar to their successors. The Class 170 Turbostar arrived amid a whirlwind of industry buzz, first courting the press on 3rd November 1998, with Midland Mainline. It failed before completing its second of four planned trips, but that did not in any way destroy confidence in what had truly been a popular product even before it reached the production line...
INTRODUCTION
The story of the 170 within Central Trains began at the end of 1997, when the operator hatched and then publicised a plan to order an unspecified number of the Adtranz Turbostars. This came just after Porterbrook announced its own plan to acquire 27 units on a speculative basis – i.e. with confidence that operators as yet unidentified would lease or hire them.
With passenger volume significantly expanding, and a danger of other operators joining the queue for hotly-desired Turbostars first (as Midland Mainline already had) negotiations for Central’s new trains were conducted swiftly. On 30th March 1998, Central Trains announced that it would be taking thirteen Turbostars, in two-car format, in a leasing deal via Porterbrook. The original ETA specified that all thirteen units would be available for use by June 1999. This would become the batch 170501 to 170513.
Still almost new, 170519 heads for Cardiff Central as RR Express liveried Class 156 No. 156403 approaches with a Hereford – Birmingham working, at Aston Fields, in May 2000.
As the first Midland Mainline Class 170 took recognisable shape in Adtranz’s Derby works at the end of summer ’98, news spread that Central Trains were to take a further twenty Turbostars. Ten more two-car sets, and ten three-car. The arrangement for this acquisition was different from the one announced in March, in that these twenty units would come from Porterbrook’s speculative Class 170 order, which had already been placed. It was not technically a new order to Adtranz. At the time, all of the as yet unbuilt Turbostars in Porterbrook’s speculative batch were designated Class 170/3. So as of September 1998, Central was set to take thirteen Class 170/5s, and twenty Class 170/3s.
As the dust settled, the designations were revised as follows:
Central’s original order from March 1998 would yield…
- 170501 to 170513 (two-car).
Central’s allocation of the Porterbrook speculative order would yield…
- 170514 to 170523 (two-car).
- 170630 to 170639 (three-car).
Although Central would later acquire more Turbostars secondhand, the above batches would be the only ones ever to wear the classic Central Trains green livery.
Even as early as this, it looked unlikely that Central’s first batch of thirteen 170s would be available by June 1999. Adtranz were now deluged in Turbostar orders to the tune of 183 separate vehicles, and the first unit in the large order before Central’s was not yet complete.
170501 was Central Trains’ first Class 170 Turbostar.
In the event, it seemed like a miracle that Adtranz managed to deliver 170501 to Central for testing on 5th July 1999, but that’s exactly what happened. Furthermore, testing went so well that the unit was accepted into traffic just four days later on the 9th. And further furthermore, the rest of the batch were delivered through the course of the summer.
The initial tests were carried out between Derby and Peterborough, and actual service began on the Derby – Matlock route. The first examples were based at Eastcroft depot, but Tyseley quickly got its hands on an allocation too.
170520 was part of the second batch of ten Turbostars for Central (170514 to 170523) – delivered between late 1999 and early 2000. Here it is as new at Barnt Green.
The 170/5s’ introduction was a godsend not just for Central, but also for Silverlink, who were able to grab some of CT’s duty-released 150 units. Silverlink had been so desperate for trains that their services still involved diesel mechanical units, and they'd had to reinstate Class 31 haulage to cover the Bedford to Bletchley route. The arrival of the Class 170s, and the Class 150s they released, helped bring that chapter of desperation steadily to a close.
170634 was part of the third batch of ten Turbostars for Central (170630 to 170639). These – the first three-car 170s in the CT fleet – arrived during spring 2000.
The next batch of 170/5s closely followed the first, and the three-car 170/6s were delivered through the course of spring 2000. Central Trains was no longer just a British Rail inheritance. It was now a rapidly modernising facet of the privatised scene, and its flagship was the Class 170 Turbostar.
The Central Trains livery originally featured the phone number on the bodyside. Here in May 2002 at Smethwick, 170512 illustrates the layout.
The Class 170/5 and Class 170/6 livery was broadly the same as that which Central had previously unveiled on the Class 158s. Except it was more consistent in the detail of its application, and it remained so until the close of Central Trains. The only noticeable changes were…
- The replacement, on the bodysides, of Central Trains’ phone number and “go” logo with the Central Trains web address, by 2003. The 170s were prioritised over the 158s when this change was made, and were thus revised more quickly.
- Yellow snow ploughs from 2005. Previously they’d been black.
170639 at Wolverhampton in the post-2005 style with yellow snow ploughs and web address on the bodyside. The 170s took on the duties of electric units as well as diesel. Their arrival allowed Central to dispense with its Class 310 units in March 2000.
SPECIAL LIVERIES
In the spring of 2003, Central planned to celebrate the Robin Hood Line’s tenth anniversary by adorning 170522 in special vinyls. However, in the event it was 170513 that was unveiled with this striking and unique look, on 16th May that year. The idea was that the stick-on veneers could be removed to return the unit to its base livery of Central Trains green at any time. Despite problems with the veneers peeling off on this particlar example, the aesthetic damage was refreshed multiple times and the livery survived for well over two years.
170505 also appeared in special vinyls – in this case to promote Birmingham’s new Bull Ring Centre, which opened in early September 2003. The buzzphrase used in the promotion, and which appeared on the bodyside of the unit, was:
“Europe’s new shopping capital isn’t in mainland Europe”.
170505’s ad livery was not as complete a job as 170513’s. At the cantrail you could still see the Central Trains green underneath, and the blue on the arch over the cab front was not veneered over. Nevertheless, ‘505 managed to retain its Bull Ring livery until 2005, before returning to standard CT green.
THE PORTERBROOK SPOT-HIRE TRIO
Starting in 2001, Central Trains began to hire from Porterbook’s Class 170 “reserve”. At the time, that only comprised the two-car set 170399, as 170397 and 170398 were not yet built. Central only used 170399 briefly in ’01, before it went on long-term hire to Anglia. But they used it regularly after it finished that engagement in 2002. It’s seen above in its most memorable guise, in mid 2003 with the monumentally striking “Be Inspired” vinyls, which it wore until late winter 2004. Even though this predates the unit’s official leasing to Central Trains, the Central branding appears as part of the vinyl design.
170397 and 170398 were added new to the Porterbrook reserve in September 2002, and initially worked for Midland Mainline, but Central subsequently nabbed that pair too.
’397 and ’398 were very briefly two-car sets at birth, and were then almost immediately updated to three-car format. 170397 is seen above wearing the Qjump vinyls it had carried since a few days after delivery.
All three units were billed as spot-hire stock, but they were also hired by operators on a long-term basis, and eventually Central Trains took the three of them on lease.
170399 as it looked when stripped of its ad veneers. This unit had a slightly different base livery from 170397 and 170398. All three were basically white with purple doors, but 170399 had a white arch at the top of the cab front, whereas the other two had a dark grey arch. Due to dirt and/or the reflection from the sky, it was often hard to tell the colours of the roofs. However, 170399's roof looked purple, whereas the other two looked to have grey roofs.
The trio were well known for wearing advertising vinyls, but when not serving as roaming billboards they were plain white with purple doors, and no branding at all. At least, that was the case up until Central leased them from the latter part of 2004.
170397 in the full Central Trains branded version of Porterbrook white livery, in summer 2005 after the unit had been adopted by CT on full lease.
After they went on lease to Central Trains, ’397/8/9 received Central Trains branding. 170397 and 170398 also gained large cabside “triple-C” logos in green. 170399 wore a Derwent Valley Hills ad livery for most of the period with Central post 2004, but when it returned to white it only got the Central branding and web address. No “triple-Cs”.
For reference, after losing its Bombardier ad vinyls in 2003, 170398 remained white until CrossCountry had it repainted in house colours in 2008. The same applied to ’397 after it lost its QJump vinyls in 2004. The golden year for ad vinyls had been 2003, during which 170505, 170513, 170397, 170398 and 170399 had all at some point been decorated with fancy aesthetics.
MIDLAND MAINLINE TRANSFERS
Central Trains had hired from the Midland Mainline Turbostar fleet as early as 1999, but regular usage began in spring 2003, after MML gained a surplus in the wake of some Virgin HST transfers and the start of the Rio project. At that point, four MML 170s were allocated specifically to Central’s Coventry to Nottingham route. The examples varied from day to day, so it wasn’t a transfer of stock – it was a provision from MML’s own fleet, essentially as if MML was running the service itself. Thus, all units continued to wear the full MML teal livery, with Midland Mainline branding.
From the following year, after the Meridian units started service with Midland Mainline, the surplus Class 170/1s steadily began migrating to Central Trains as outright transfers - for use on any and all Class 170 routes. Ultimately, all seventeen of the original MML 170/1s were transferred. These had been introduced as two-car sets, but by the time Central got hold of them, 170101 to 170110 had been augmented to three cars.
170110 in a transitional version of MML/Central Trains livery.
The 170/1s operated with Central in the full MML livery initially, but were quickly stripped of the branding, deer and orange stripes, and given rather less stylish Central Trains branding. The units also acquired large, cabside “triple-C” logos.
In the first half of 2005, the teal livery beneath the branding was the same as it had been with Midland Mainline. The pastel blue on the doors only extended down as far as the top of the former orange stripes. And at the base of the doors, the beige band running along the lower bodyside was uniterrupted.
Ex-Midland Mainline Class 170s it service with Central Trains, wearing the final, adapted version of the livery.
But the livery was progressively updated in the region of the doors, so that the pastel blue ran right down to the top of the beige band. Meanwhile, the beige banding was interrupted on the doors and replaced with teal. It made sense to make this modification now that the stripes had been removed.
With all of these former MML 170s transferred to Central, Plus the Porterbook trio, plus the original two orders Central Trains had placed in the ‘90s, there were now a whacking fifty-three sets in the fleet. This gave the West Midlands region a vastly more passenger-friendly service than it had had in the 1990s. I’m sure I’m not the only one who remembers making longer distance journeys on a solid-packed single-car Class 153 in the pre-170 age. But at the lineside, things had become a lot more predictable for the enthusiast.
THE END
Even before Central Trains handed its Class 170 stock over to the new operators London Midland and CrossCountry, some examples had their branding removed. Above, you can see how 170103 looked on 6th November 2007, five days before Central’s dissolution. It does still have the “triple-C” logos, but the wording has gone.
170639 – the sole surviving Central Trains green Class 170, in May 2009. You can see the CrossCountry branding on an otherwise plain lower bodyside. And note the addition of a yellow first class strip above the passenger windows. Central Trains did not have first class seating.
Upon dissolution, the Central Trains 170s were almost entirely split between London Midland and CrossCountry. 170504 wore London Midland livery on the very first day of service with the new franchise, but it took a long time for the former Central Trains green and MML teal liveries to completely disappear – especially on CrossCountry. 170639 was the last Central Trains green Class 170, making it to the middle of 2009 – over eighteen months after the franchise ended. The former MML livery survived slightly longer still, with 170109 flying the teal flag as the very last of the erstwhile CT 170s to finally get its CrossCountry colours.
To conclude, here’s a last glance at the very last remnant of original Midland Class 170 liveries. 170109 makes one of its final runs in MML/Central teal, in summer 2009.