What should the next 64ft Revolution DMU be?

[Bob G]

OK so we know the 120 is coming next. The 120's criteria for sales are:
Long life: 1958 - 1989
Lots of liveries: Green Whiskers, Green SYP, Blue/SYP, Blue/FYP (ScR), Blue-Grey/FYP
Wide geographic presence: WR, ScR, MR

Theses are my three choices, and more importantly WHY they should be done.

If we were to consider geographical distribution, the 117 comes out a very high contender.
Long life: 1959 - 2000 (2015 in Departmental use)
Lots of liveries: Green Whiskers, Green SYP, Blue/FYP, Blue-Grey/FYP, NSE, Regional, Scotrail, Preservation liveries (Chocolate and cream, Blood and custard)
Wide geographic presence: WR, ScR, MR

The 119 is an easy win for Revolution, as it is essentially a 120 with Derby ends (and different roof vents).
Long life: 1958 - 1992
Lots of liveries: Green Whiskers, Green SYP, Blue-Grey/FYP, NSE
Wide geographic presence: WR, SR, NSE

The 123 is my choice of smiley faced units as it was WR and then moved to Trans-Pennine operations.
Long life: 1958 - 1984
Lots of liveries: Green Whiskers, Green SYP, Blue-Grey/FYP
Wide geographic presence: WR, SR, Trans-Pennine.

Of any of the options available to Revolution, the 117 should be highest on their list, in terms of livery options, longevity, and regional presence. The problem with any of the other DMUs is they were very route-specific or region-specific.

At TINGS, Dapol told me they had no current plans for taking their 121/122 designs and turning them into a 117. I suspect the chassis is starting to show its age.

Bob

[emjaybee]

I have voted...

...it appears I stand alone!

 

[Bob G]

There is always one. And it's good to have no bias in a vote

[emjaybee]

How about the LMS D1996 articulated DMU?


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LMS_railcars

I'll get my coat.
Ian

That's a new one on me!

They should recreate that for the E-W rail link, they'd be queuing up to travel.

[emjaybee]

There is always one. And it's good to have no bias in a vote

 

[martyn]

As I've posted before, the 120s also worked in East Anglia on Norwich-Birmingham services, though they were based at Derby at the time.

The lwb 'Lea valley' units operated in pairs on summer only services to Harwich Town for the Warner's holiday camp special at Dovercourt bay (and where Hi di Hi was filmed).

I'm not after a lwb DMU, my own preferences would be a Derby lightweight twin and the Cravens swb units. Both these have been made by Bachmann in 4mm, and I live in hope. I accept that under the buffer beam differences, but I use my 101s as the original 'yellow diamond' MetCam units. One day I might try and add valances and horns.

Martyn

[Red Onion]

I have the only vote for the 114 but I think they'd make a great compliment to the 120 in RM red.

[jpendle]

I think you need to change the title of the thread to match the poll 

No first generation for me, but a nice CL197 wouldn't go amiss.

Regards,

John P

[Newportnobby]

I'm afraid none of those in the poll. For 1st generation DMUs I'd like to see Derby or Park Royal twin sets but they are 57ft 6in chassis

[Bob G]

Well, now we have seen what Revolution can do with a 63' chassis, who knows what will come next...?

err Ben and Mike do. It's a 120 !!!! 

[bluedepot]

I've changed it so that this is clearly just a vote for 64ft ish dmus!

next week we'll have a vote on 57ft long ones, so people can vote for them too!

as I said I never knew the chassis was able to be made shorter.

we can have a poll for rail buses as well ...

I will personally hand deliver the results of the poll to ben ando and then camp outside his house until at least the top 3 in each category are made available for pre-order ?


cheers


tim

[Brian-1c]

Of course, we have the EMUs too, the 310 was 65'

[crewearpley40]

Totally agree mick and brian

Would love to see one

Class 110,  115, 117, 123

[PLD]

My Heart says 124 Trans-Pennine units, given their local connections, but a complicated shape to make (especially the ends), small fleet, relatively short-lived on limited routes is likely to limit sales and being a 6 car unit (4 different vehicles) expensive to produce.

My head says the Derby Suburban units 115/6 (plus contractor built near clones 117/8) would be more viable. Many more built, more widespread use and longer lasting, plus evidence of the Farish DMUs suggests that 3-car units are seemingly the most sought-after.

[Bob G]

...evidence of the Farish DMUs suggests that 3-car units are seemingly the most sought-after.

I think so too, but Farish and Dapol both seem to believe that shorter DMUs, being cheaper, will get more sales and will fit more people's layouts. How many 121s existed in real life. Not that many!

And many manufacturers seem to think/used to think people just want a DMU and are not fussy which one.

Bob