The Class 121 'Bubble Car'. In operation at Llangollen prior to moving to Chiltern Railways.

© David Meaden

A thing of beauty ( well almost ). Do you know when these came into service. I will be looking to buy a couple which depict the exhausts up the front of the cab, but wonder when the earliest date when this happened actually was ?

Anyinfowould be gratefully received.

Cheers

Toto.

Nice pics David. Pity the 121 isn't in original green livery !

Tom,

The 121's entered service in 1960. 16 driving coaches were built and an additional 10 trailers. The driving coaches were designed with the exhaust pipes that way (as in pics) on the drawing board, as to fit around the large 4 digit route headcode indicator box. They only have exhaust at one end of the coach.

Cheers, Gary.

As Gary said, they were built that way. The slightly earlier Gloucester RCW units (which became class 122) also had the exhausts up one end but as they had a smaller destination panel where the Pressed Steel 121s had the four-character headcode box (which was plated over in later years), the exhausts didn't have to bend outwards. Instead, as originally built, they curved in over the top of the destination screen and joined into an oval shaped box for the outlet. Later on they were modified with the top section cut off so the exhausts just ended up as straight up on either side with each remaining separate and parallel.

Then there were the Derby Lightweights, some of which were converted for single unit running.

Here's the one I recorded for my Derby Lightweight DCC sound project (incorporating manual gear changing with F keys).

Sorry about the quality, it was just shot on my 'phone.




Kind regards,

Paul

Nothing wrong with the quality there…, it's like it should be, green ! :thumbs

Cheers, Gary.

That was exactly what I was trying to describe, Paul. Thanks for the nice photo. As Gary said, there's nothing wrong with it. :cool:

I forgot to mention the Gloucester units were built with two-character headcodes below the centre windscreens.