West Midlands Railway have finally bid farewell to their London Midland Class 153 trains.
The Class 153s have served the railway for more than 30 years, exceeding 25 million miles over the entire fleet; that’s equivalent to 104 trips to the moon!
They say "But now it’s time to bid adieu as we make way for bigger and better things… like shiny brand-new trains!"
The WMR Class 153's have been coupled up to Class 170s to help create more capacity
Built-in 1988, the Class 153s originally started as a two-car Class 155, but in the early 1990s, British Rail split them into separate units, creating the Class 153s.
For 10 years they graced the railway with rail operating company, London Midland, carrying passengers between Leamington Spa to Nuneaton and Bedford to Bletchley before Class 172s took up those routes.
Since then, WMR have adopted the Class 153s for their services, they have been coupled up to Class 170s to help create more capacity for services along the Birmingham to Hereford line; whilst WMR wait for their new Class 196 trains to arrive.
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| Picture by West Midlands Trains |
Joseph Simpson, West Midlands Railway’s Class 170 and 153 Fleet Engineer commented, ‘It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to our Class 153s as they head into long-term storage until they are needed again. I would like to say thank you to all the train crew and technical teams who have looked after these units for the past thirty years’.
Despite 2020 being a tough year for us all, we now look on to new horizons as we will be welcoming our brand-new Class 196 fleet next year."
