The Central Trains / London Midland / West Midlands Class 153 Diesels

The class hit the headline news in November 1999, when two separate Central Trains units' engines fell off, in separate incidents, in less than a week.

In the summer of 2000, Central Trains 153383 lends its extra seating to the operator's green liveried 158844.

After witnessing a collection of former Central Trains Class 153s tootling off to Long Marston in a final shift away from the West Midlands, I thought now would be a good time to pictorially review their years in the area. Whilst I'm founding the article on the Central Trains period, I'm carrying the progression through into the London Midland and West Midlands Railway eras, taking a look at where each vehicle ended up after Central Trains dissolved, etc.

The 153s were never without some controversy in the Central region. The class hit the headline news in November 1999, when two separate Central Trains units' engines fell off, in separate incidents, in less than a week. 153356 and 153334 lost their engines on the 11th and 16th of the month respectively, both whilst working very early morning services. But there was another reason why Central Trains' 153s took a more persistent verbal beating, as we'll see...

Back in the Day: Dudley Port Junction

Dudley Port Junction offered the area's largest volume of loco-hauled passenger trains, coupled with total freedom to roam and relax.

For the rail enthusiast of the millennium period, it had everything. A relaxed, canalside setting, a range of photo vantage points within walking distance, and in the thick of the day an average of six or so loco-hauled trains per hour. Diesel and electric. Passenger and freight. Located on the Stour Valley line between Dudley Port station and the site of the former Albion station, it was (and still is - although things have changed in the past two decades) Dudley Port Junction.

Dudley Port Junction is so-called not because of any railway divergence, but because it sits on the junction of Thomas Telford's BCN Main Line Birmingham to Wolverhampton Canal, and the canal's Netherton Branch, leading across via Netherton Tunnel to the Dudley Canal.

A Railway Month in Pictures: February 2001

"Through the latter part of the month, the whole country commenced a farmland shutdown, which affected a huge number of public footpaths and saw many popular railway photography vantage points labelled out of bounds."

Virgin Trains 43194 at Wolverhampton.

If you keep a diary and you were a UK railway enthusiast at the beginning of the century, you may notice quite a downbeat tone across your February 2001 entries. For the first time, signs of the homogenised future heralded by privatisation were starting to show, and the horizon was far from golden.

With the Class 175s finally up and running, January 2001 had seen the last of the Class 37-hauled services between Birmingham and North Wales. Meanwhile, another looming threat to old stock became a reality on 8th Feb, when the first Pendolino - 390001 - left Alstom Washwood Heath behind 66087, for testing at Ashfordby. The following day, the final three EWS Class 31s were withdrawn from regular service at Old Oak Common. And the following week, engineering work between Exeter and Newton Abbot shut down services in the West Country.

Millennium Turns - West Midlands Rail Scene Around the Year 2000

"The Class 56s dug in their heels to the point where, in the second half of 2000, they actually made something of a comeback."

We kick off our nostaligic pictorial just south of Bankers Bridge, Bromsgrove, with a real encapsulation of the times. Virgin HST sets in mixes of InterCity and Virgin livery were common through the late 1990s. By 2000, most of the repainting was complete, but there were still plenty of opportunities to see the occasional red set with a rogue IC power car at one end. And with time running out for the last IC stock set, one complete InterCity formation was assembled in Y2K. The set above, captured on the doorstep of the new millennium at the end of summer 1999, is led by 43159.

The Central Trains & Centro Class 150s - Info-Pictorial

"...Early that month, strange aesthetic omissions began to occur within the CT 150 fleet. 150022 was outshopped ex-works in Central Trains green, but with no branding at all..."

Prior to London Midland’s introduction of the Class 172 in 2011, the almost exclusively dominant multiple unit on rail routes emanating from Birmingham Snow Hill and Moor Street was the Class 150. The 150s had also maintained strongholds on some routes out of New Street – the Birmingham to Cannock service, for example. And they had a modest presence on the Lickey Incline too.