British Rail Class 122

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Class 122, no. 55006, at Bewdley on the Severn Valley Railway on 15th October 2004, whilst taking part in the Railcar 50 event. This unit is painted in original BR Green livery, and is preserved on the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway.

Class 960 departmental unit, no. 960015 at Crewe Diesel Depot on 1st June 2003. This unit is the former Class 122 no. 55019, and is painted in Railtrack's old brown livery. It is operated by Network Rail as a sandite application unit.

The British Rail Class 122 diesel multiple units were built by Gloucester RC&W in 1958.

1 Description
2 Parcels Use
3 Current operations
4 Preservation

[edit] Description

Twenty single-car driving motor vehicles, called "Bubble Cars", were built, numbered 55000-55019. These were supplemented by ten trailer vehicles, numbered 56290-299 (later renumbered 54290-299).

[edit] Parcels Use

Three Scottish Region cars (55013-55015) were converted to carry parcels traffic and were reclassified Class 131, though the vehicles themselves were not renumbered.

[edit] Current operations

Upon privatisation of Britain's railways, the Class 122 fleet has been withdrawn from normal service. However several units were operated by EWS and Network Rail (previously Railtrack) in departmental service, reclassified as Class 960. These are listed below:

Unit no.	Vehicle no.		Livery	Operator	Use	Status
Unit no.	Departmenal no.	Former no.	Livery	Operator	Use	Status
01	975023	55001	BR Blue	Railtrack	Sandite/Route-learning unit	Now preserved on the Northampton & lamport railway, although undergoing restoration.
122012	977941	55012	Load-Haul	EWS	Route-learning unit	Stored in 2002
960015	975042	55019	NR Yellow	Network Rail	Sandite unit	In traffic

[edit] Preservation

"Bubble Cars" have proved popular for preservation on heritage railways.

Vehicle no.		Unit no.	Vehicle type	Location	Livery	Comments
Original no.	Departmental no.	Unit no.	Vehicle type	Location	Livery	Comments
55000	-	122100	DMBS	South Devon Railway	Regional Railways	-
55001	975023	01	DMBS	Northampton & Lamport Railway	BR Blue	-
55003	-	P103	DMBS	Mid-Hants Railway	BR Green	First preserved DMU to gain main line certification
55005	-	P105	DMBS	Battlefield Railway	BR Blue/Grey	-
55006	-	P106	DMBS	Ecclesbourne Valley Railway	BR Green	Currently visiting the Midland Railway Butterley for their DMU Gala.
55009	-	P109	DMBS	Mid Norfolk Railway	BR Green	-

British Rail diesel multiple units
Diesel locomotives - Electric locomotives - Miscellaneous locomotives Diesel multiple units (DMUs and DEMUs) - Electric multiple units (EMUs) - Departmental multiple units
	First-generation diesel units
Classes:	100 - 101 - 102 - 103 - 104 - 105 - 106 - 107 - 108 - 109 - 110 - 111 - 112 - 113 - 114 - 115 116 - 117 - 118 - 119 - 120 - 121 - 122 - 123 - 124 - 125 - 126 - 127 - 128 - 129 - 130 - 131
Original TOPS:	140 - 141 - 142 - 143 - 144 - 145 - 147 - 148 - 149 - 150 - 160 - 161 - 162 - 163 - 164 - 166 167 - 168 - 169 - 171 - 172 - 173 - 175 - 176 - 177 - 178 - 179 - 180 - 182 - 183 - 185 - 186 188 - 189
Pre-TOPS:	British United Traction - Derby Lightweight - Metro-Cammell - Railbus GWR Railcars - LMS Railcars
	Second-generation diesel units
Classes:	140 - 141 - 142 - 143 - 144 - 150 - 151 - 153 - 154 - 155 - 156 - 157 - 158 - 159 - 165 - 166 168 - 170 - 171 - 175 - 180 - 185
	Diesel-electric units
Classes:	201 - 202 - 203 - 204 - 205 - 206 - 207 - 210 - 220 - 221 - 222 - 251 - 252 - 253 - 254 - 255
SR designation:	3D - 3H - 3R - 3T - 4L - 6B - 6L - 6S
	Departmental units
Classes:	901 - 930 - 950 - 951 - 960 - APT-E - MPV