The Weardale Railway Trust are pleased to announce that we have completed the purchase of British Rail Class 142 pacer set '142078' from the Wensleydale Railway.
Both cars were delivered separately to Wolsingham Depot by Reid Freight on Thursday and following some shunting to get them back into the correct order, were re-united by Weardale Railway Limited depot staff on Friday.
The set (consisting of numbers 55728 and 55774) was built in 1987 and was one of the last to be withdrawn by Northern after being based locally at Heaton Depot in Newcastle and kept in warm storage until it entered preservation in 2021.
142078 has seen regular use operating passenger services on the Wensleydale Railway this year up until the point of purchase and its arrival at Weardale will help to provide further resilience and flexibility to the services the Railway can run.
A Fitness To Run (FTR) exam will be carried out at Wolsingham Depot in the coming days before it can run on our line, at which point crew familiarisation and training will take place before it can enter passenger service.
Pictures courtesy of Tom Hatton show 142078 after its arrival at Wolsingham Depot.
