A long way from home...
Notice something strange? You'd be right. No this photo isn't in Birmingham, this is indeed Penzance with Central Connect Class 150, 150125 seen here before working a service to Par. This was transferred here last week to Exeter, and this was her first trip down into Cornwall. The unit looked very tidy from the outside and left no real operator marks other than the livery of course, but without company branding etc.
The seats weren't exactly the most comfortable I've ever sat on. Of course these are designed for short hops into Birmingham, not 2-3 hour runs from Penzance to Plymouth/Exeter. The extra capasity may be welcomed at peak times though, but on a fairly quiet service upto Par, it was just uncomfortable. I was very glad when I could transfer to a HST for the rest of the journey to Plymouth, while this went off on the Newquay branch.
As I mentioned the train does still retain old marks from Birmingham and retains the route maps throughout the unit, which were actually quite interesting to look at. No doubt a few people were quite confused!
There were also many native posters including this one from Network West Midlands on fare saving ideas! Even these were well out of date though!
From your picture it appears that this is one of the very early 150's with no gangway connection on the end. There appears to be a 153 attached at the rear, presumably you will be marooned in each unit without the ability to transfer between the two. Not exactly an operationally flexible type of unit, particularly if one has become more crowded than the other!
ReplyDeleteI believe that these are the original seats recovered - if Wessex Trains hadn't had the native 150/2s refurbished with new 2 by 2 seating, all FGW 150s might be still like this.
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