The ‘Pacer’ family of DMUs have never been the most popular with passengers, yet modellers have been keen to add this distinctive utilitarian trains to their fleet. Dapol added it's long awaited ‘N’ gauge model of the Class 142 in 2019 – MIKE WILD takes a closer look.
THE 'PACER' family of railbuses were designed as a short-term solution to a requirement for new rolling stock to replace life expired first generation units. Many were built to operate around Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle and while they were originally designed to have a 20-year life span, the majority of the Class 142, 143 and 144 fleets are still in service today.
The first prototype design was the Class 140, introduced in 1980, and this unique two-car unit was followed in 1984 by the first production units – a fleet of 20 Class 141s which spent their entire career allocated to Leeds Neville Hill depot for use in West Yorkshire. One year later the ‘Pacer’ family expanded with the arrival of the Class 142 in 1985. In total 96 were built and they found service in the North West, North East, South Wales and Cornwall, though only for a limited period in the case of the latter. The final designs to be introduced were the Class 143 and 144 units.
While they have al…
