Accrington Railways - Robert Kenyon

CHAPTER 11

INTO THE DIESEL ERA ( On June 1 st , 1961, the Chairman of BR, General Sir Brian Robertson was due to retire. He had hitherto been critic of the Government’s policy of closing uneconomical lines in favour of a ‘socially’ operated network. His replacement would come in the shape of Dr Richard Beeching the former head of ICI, who would immediately set about an analysis of which lines were profitable and those which required a subsidy. The consequences for East Lancashire would prove to be irreversible. ) In 1961 Accrington became the first shed in the East Lancashire Division to go over to Diesel Multiple Unit operations, receiving an allocation of Cravens two - car units, numbered 51697 to 51730 and 51731 to 51780 inclusive. The Cravens Railway Carriage & Wagon Company was a Sheffield firm and the two - car sets were made of steel bodywork which was similar in design to Mk1 loco-hailed coaching stock. They were one of the first of the new generation of Diesel Multiple Units to have a two-window cab, which gave the driver an improved view forwards. The bogies were to the British Railways Derby ‘single bolster’ design, and were prone to ‘hunting’, which gave them a poor riding quality. This set up vibrations, which gave them a poor reputation for being noisy with rattles emanating from windows, the slam doors and the luggage racks. One toilet was provided in each set. Each of the cars in the set was fitted with a 238 horse-power Rolls-Royce engine, giving a total of 460hp for traction purposes and this was linked to a mechanical transmission. The top permitted speed was 70 mph (131km/h), and the braking system was vacuum operated. The Rolls-Royce engines were prone to catching fire, (see note on M51770), and this resulted in the withdrawal of Cravens units earlier than many other of the other first generation DMUs introduced about the same time or even earlier. They were classified in the British Railways scheme as 112 and 113 units, and were split into Driving - Motor - Brake - Seconds (DMBS), and Driving - Motor - Brake - Composites (DMCL), which were coupled in pairs to make a two-car unit. The DMBS cars had 52 seats and the DMCL cars had 51,

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