"Central could not wait for the entire repair to be completed, and the lesser damaged of the two cars was rushed back into service about two months after the crash."
Looking pretty awesome in the memorable Central Trains green livery, 156401 approaches Bankers Bridge, Aston Fields, on 20th February 2004.
I said in the Virgin Electrics Loco-Hauled piece that finding coverage of the 25KV workhorses in the railway magazines of the late 1990s could prove a challenge. But if you ever feel the need to step up that challenge to new heights, try finding anything relating to the Central Trains Class 156s in the same printed matter. Grab a bundle of mags from the period, seek to convince yourself that the Tyseley-based Super-Sprinters even existed, and you may end up in some doubt.
156412 on a stop at Kings Norton station during an extremely rare outing on the Cross-City line, 27th January 2001. This is the Regional Railways Express livery that characterised the 1997 to 2003 period for the CT 156s.
But exist they definitely did. And they were visually-engaging units in their Regional Railways Express livery. They performed competently among ex-BR units too, with an average Lickey Incline ascent of 4 minutes and 18 seconds from a standing start at the old Bromsgrove station.
They were, however, built for higher-density use (with a lower max speed) than the subsequent Class 158s, so prior to the arrival of the Class 170s, the 156s bore secondary, rather than flagship status in the Central Trains diesel fleet. Nevertheless, the CT 156s did originally share duties with the CT 158s, simply because Central's allocation of 158s was insufficient to cover the brand's express diesel traffic.
A classic scene from the early Central Trains period outside Smethwick Rolfe Street station, sees 156404 nearing its destination of Birmingham New Street.
This situation persisted in full up until 2000, when the 170s started work on the Nottingham to South Wales services. The use of CT 156s on these runs then began to fade. Visions of 156s on the Lickey then remained modest until 2003, when Central secured regular use not only of the three Porterbrook 170/3s, but also of a fluid group of four Midland Mainline 170/1s. Added to the existing build-up of native Central Trains 170s, this reinforcement more or less cut off the remainder of regular duties for CT 156s south of Birmingham. Post 2003, the appearance of a 156 on the Lickey Incline increasingly became an mini-event, and was an extreme rarity by 2006.
With just a week left of the twentieth century, 156417 is caught in the winter sun at Bromford bridge. In Washwood Heath yard there are representatives from classes 08 and (somewhat hiding) 37.
The original twenty Central Trains examples allocated to the SBG sector (Regional Railways Central pool), and resourced from Porterbrook Leasing, comprised...
156401, 156402, 156403, 156404, 156405, 156406, 156407, 156408, 156409, 156410, 156411, 156412, 156413, 156414, 156415, 156416, 156417, 156418, 156419 and 156422.
When Central Trains acquired them in 1997, the 156s' liveries were split between BR's Regional Railways Express livery, and the 156 'birthday suit' of Provincial blue and off-white livery. The original Provincial livery is seen above in a couple of early 1990s shots. Note that at this earlier time, additional examples were in use on the region - 156403 appears on the Lickey on the left, while 156427 appears at Northfield on the right.
By 1998, the whole Tyseley 156 fleet wore the RR Express colour scheme, and examples updated into the livery during the BR era had their Regional Railways branding replaced with a small Central Trains vinyl.
Making the approximately 4 minutes 18 seconds climb of the Lickey Incline on 15th March 2000, 156414 shows off its Regional Railways Express livery.
In the late 1990s there was no plan to further update this livery, as (initially) a full Central Trains aesthetic had not been finalised, and by '99 when the CT green livery started to roll out, it was not sure whether the type would remain with the operator long enough to warrant receiving it.
But the events of 29th July 1999 interrupted that plan, as 156407 struck a combine harvester and was carted off to works with accident damage. Since the Regional Railways Express livery was now obsolete and the unit would require a full repaint post repair, it was scheduled to re-appear in Central Trains green on a one-off basis.
However, stock needs being what they were, Central could not wait for the entire repair to be completed, and the lesser damaged of the two cars was rushed back into service about two months after the crash.
156407 was not only the first Class 156 to wear the Central Trains green livery - it predated the next example by some three and a half years and was effectively a celebrity unit over that period.
By September '99, 158785 was without one of its cars due to a separate accident, so car 52785 - already fresh in Central Trains green after 158785's release from overhaul in the August - had been paired with RR blue 153323 until its real partner could be repaired. To free up the 153, 57407 - the lesser damaged car from 156407 - was hastily returned to service in Central Trains green, and formed into a 156/158 hybrid set with 52785, from 158785.
This wasn't the only time a CT 156 car found itself in a hybrid partnership. 156409 made the news when it hit an inhabited van on the line, resulting in a fatality, whilst working the 15:42 Birmingham - Sleaford on 28th February 2002. Subsequently, the undamaged 57409 was buddied up with 153356. On this occasion, the 153 notably had its set number changed to 156409. And both cars retained their old BR Regional Railways colours. The 153 in blue, and the 156 in Express.
In January 2000, 57407 was finally reunited with its true partner 52407, to form a complete 156407. But because 156407's two cars were processed separately, and there was no standardised version of the CT green livery for a 156 in 1999/2000, the two cars exhibited detail differences. Not only did 57407 and 52407 differ from each other in livery application, they also differed from the main run of Central Trains Class 156 repaints, which didn't commence until the second half of 2003.
With 57407 facing the camera, 156407 passes Castle Bromwich in 2000.
Car 57407 - the first repaint - had a front end similar to the later batch, with black light clusters and a black set number. However, the set number was positioned high, immediately beneath the black window section, which was wider than on later revisions. There was no white relief on the cab-front handrails or foot-hole bases either. You can see car 57407 facing the camera in a shot taken at Castle Bromwich, a few months after the set was re-formed in 2000. The consist is a pretty cool line-up, also comprising a Regional Railways CT Class 153, and a Regional Railways Express CT 156.
With 52407 facing the camera, 156407 runs into Kings Norton.
Car 52407 - the second repaint - had a more instantly distinctive front end, with darker, more orangey yellow warning panels, extending across the light clusters, and just about managing to offset a 'trademark' white set number. But in common with the later batch of repaints, 52407 did have white handrails beneath its front windows, and white-lined foot-hole bases. It's seen above at Kings Norton. This was not the only CT green 156 car to feature yellow light clusters, but black was adopted as the standard, so it was untypical.
Both 57407 and 52407 had a significantly thicker dark green band at the base of their bodysides, and longer dark grey window surround sections, as compared with the later repaints. And notably, unlike the Class 158 repaints of 1999 and 2000, the 1999/2000 156 repaint did not feature the Central Trains phone number, or the “go” logo, on the bodyside. However, the post 2003 repaints came after a policy change in which the CT web address replaced the phone number on 158 bodysides, and the later green 156s did then follow the 158 policy.
156402 after its repaint into Porterbrook base (Scotrail) livery. Had the units' transfer north of the border gone ahead, this repaint would have signalled the end of the story for the Central Trains 156s, and 156407 would have stood as a one-off CT green memory.
For three and a half years after January 2000, the Central Trains Class 156s ran in RR Express colours, with 156407 serving as a one-off celebrity. It was intended during this interim that the units would head north, as part of an exchange deal between sister operators Scotrail and Central Trains. But the deal - which involved a straight swap of the whole Tyseley 156 fleet for 20 Scotrail 158s - was terminated at the last minute. After the U-turn, Central pressed ahead with a full repaint programme that saw the eye-popping bright green colour scheme applied across the fleet.
Another view of the would-be Scotrail 156402.
In fact, so late in the day was the Scotrail U-turn, that the first of the 2003 repaints received the white and purple Scotrail base livery. Without any branding at all, the unit in question - 156402 - was then released into traffic with Central Trains that July. It didn't look particularly alien going forward, since the Porterbrook 170/3s, also in use with Central, carried a very similar base livery when running without their ad vinyls. As Rail Express reported on the Central 156s at the time in summer '03...
“Future units will emerge in Central Trains colours after overhaul, and 156410 was undergoing attention at Wabtec Doncaster in late July.”
156404 was one of the class members repainted into CT green at Doncaster in 2003. It's seen here shortly after release, at Dudley Port canal junction.
156410 would thus become the first of the main run of Central Trains green Class 156 repaints.
In summer 2005, Central Trains green 156s could still be seen at Worcester Shrub Hill on occasional trains off and onto the Malvern/Herford line. But by the following year, one would be very fortunate to catch such a visit. This is 156408, bound for Great Malvern, on 17th July 2005.
The main CT green repaint programme for the Tyseley 156s coincided with their general removal from frontline services, and their absence from some routes was compounded after 2005, when a group of nine were exchanged with One/Anglia for an equal number of 150/2s. The group transferred away from Central in spring 2005 were:
156402, 156407, 156409, 156412, 156416, 156417, 156418, 156419 and 156422.
Late on in the timeline of Central Trains, 156405 sits in the sunshine of 8th July 2007 at Tyseley. Such was the type's association with East Midlands duties by this time, that a few months later, they were split off to East Midlands Trains, rather than London Midland, which took on most of Central Trains' former duties.
And whilst Central Trains did retain the remaining eleven, they were increasingly concentrated in the East Midlands area. It was still possible to find them lurking around Tyseley depot, but it was increasingly clear post 2005 that the trains Central had been trying to palm off for years, really would soon be vacating the Birmingham area. In November 2007, they did. None made it into the London Midland fleet which would be the main replacement for Central Trains. Instead, all remaining CT 156s were absorbed into East Midlands Trains.
Heading back to old times, a RR Express liveried 156403 departs from Barnt Green in the snow.
At the height of the 2003-2005 green repaint period, 156411 makes its way towards Birmingham New Street at Kings Norton on Saturday 7th August 2004.
Showing some of the detail more closely, a tighter shot of Regional Railways Express liveried 156418 at Tame Bridge. This is a Birmingham to Cannock service, which would normally produce a Class 150.
And finally, to contrast with the 2003 shot of 156404 fresh in Central Trains green, here it is again in Regional Railways Express colours at Selly Oak, on a very fine 26th June 2002.