Northern rail services.

[hstudent]

Originally Posted by steam for ever

It cannot be avoided that the 142s are being phased out on services on the mid cheshire (Stockport- Chester via Altrincham).

I'm not disagreeing with you there. There only used to be one all day Sprinter diagram which started the day on a 06:0x Blackpool to Manchester to Chester service and remained on Chester to Manchester services for the rest of the day, staying at Longsight overnight and then doing an early morning Stockport-Blackpool service the next day.

They may well be used on the line to Buxton but this service and the one to Hazle grove are different lines altogether. The line to Buxton uses platform 0 at Stockport and trains to Chester via Altrincham use the oppostite side of the station.

Pacers are never used on Hazel Grove-Buxton as they aren't powerful enough to deal with the sharp gradient. Sprinters do switch between Buxton and Chester at peak times.

[steam for ever]

It has been suggested that they will be used on the middlewich line once open to passengers which is a good idea but I can't see where they would go at crewe. Is there enough platform space for example?

[hstudent]

I think I've worked out the 142 issue on Chester-Manchester via Altrincham. We seem to have one all day 142 diagram but unit switches occur that result in other 142s coming on to the line for part of the day.

The following diagram seems to be the all day 142 diagram:
0617 ex Manchester, 0807 ex Chester, 1017 ex Manchester etc.

Then we have things like:
0607 ex Chester is a 142, it sits at Piccadilly for a while and is attached to the 0917 ex Manchester (a 150, which ran the 07:07 Chester to Manchester), 142 detached at Chester and runs the 110x ex Chester by itself. It then gets switched to a pair of Sprinters, then back to a 142 again in time for the 1709 ex Manchester.

The 0817 ex Manchester is usually a Sprinter but gets switched during the day so the 16:17 ex Manchester is a 142.

[steam for ever]

I have seen another 142 as well so I realise you are right. 142047 was seen in Hale as the same time as 142005 so I can see what you mean. It was on a sunday however so I don't know if untils change on this day.

[faltskog36abba]

my friend who is a conductor at northern-based at manchester victoria,tells me the 180s are staying and they are doing route learning at the moment,will be seeing him at the weekend so will be pumping him for more information,anyone else heard anything?

[hstudent]

Originally Posted by steam for ever

I have seen another 142 as well so I realise you are right. 142047 was seen in Hale as the same time as 142005 so I can see what you mean. It was on a sunday however so I don't know if untils change on this day.

I think on Sunday's it different because we usually have Chester-Altrincham-Manchester-Bolton-Wigan-Southport services every 2 hours and sometimes football matches are played in Manchester, Bolton and Wigan on Sundays meaning 142s would struggle with the number of passengers.

I actually thought we had two 142 diagrams all day on weekdays until I realised that there's instances where it's switched between 142s and 15xs during the day. It's also slightly confusing to work out when sometimes they don't use the normal type of traction on a service e.g. this morning a 156 was on the 0807 Chester to Manchester service (usually a 142) and the 0817 Manchester to Chester service was a 142 instead of the usual 156.

[hstudent]

Originally Posted by faltskog36abba

my friend who is a conductor at northern-based at manchester victoria,tells me the 180s are staying and they are doing route learning at the moment,will be seeing him at the weekend so will be pumping him for more information,anyone else heard anything?

Yes. The 180s were due to be transferred to East Coast in May, at the same time London Overground were supposed to get 8 172s to release their 150s. A delay in the 172 delivery will mean no cascaded units will be available to replace the 180s with Northern in May so the 180s will remain in service with Northern until the Autumn.

[hstudent]

Someone's set up a government petition for the Northern Rail franchise to be improved, including replacing Pacer trains:

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/northtrains/

[steam for ever]

I cannot see any reasoning in transferring any good stock such as 158s and then replacing them with the awful little grotty, vandalised, spat on, damp seated, over crowded, smelly, wowking-on-one-engine-only, faulty doors, rattling disgrace on wheels.