Llangollen Railway 104s

Three of the thirteen preserved Class 104 vehicles are located on the Llangollen Railway in Wales. This heritage railway boasts stunning scenery and operates steam & diesel services over 7 miles of track, with a further 2 mile extention in the pipeline.

Diesel services are operated mostly by DMUs, with over 90 days of DMU operations. Llangollen Railcars is the volunteer group that operates four 2-car sets on the railway. One of those 2-car sets is formed of 104 DMBS M50454 & DMCL M50528. A third vehicle, DMBS M50447, is currently out of service and is used by the group as a static headquarters coach. All the DMUs are kept at their base at Pentrefelin where the main Carriage & Wagon workshops for the railway are located.

History

All three vehicles arrived at Llangollen in 1993. M50454 & M50528 had already been paired in BR service and gained celebrity status after becoming a bit of a depot favourite, being selected to attend open days and work specials during the dying days of most 1st generation DMUs. They were therefore in better condition than M50447 which had been stored at Chester.

M50454 & M50528 were therefore returned to service relatively quickly, becoming the first 104 to operate in preservation. It ran during 1994 & 1995 in its BR Blue livery with full yellow ends. M50447 was stored and was intended to provide spares.

Restoration

M50454 & M50528 have been in service almost continuosly since 1994. During the 15 years that the set has been in traffic, different parts of the vehicles have been restored as needed, complimenting the initial heavy refurbishment undertaken in 1994. In the mid 1990's the set was repainted into BR Green livery with half yellow warning panels, returning the exterior to 1960's condition; and the interiors were refurbished in 1998.

M50447 was repainted on one side only in BR Green to keep the appearance tidy.

More recently in 2007 M50454 was taken out of service for major bodywork when a new cab was fitted. The set was briefly back in traffic where it sported a full yellow end on the new cab before returning to the workshops for the replacement of large sections of the bodysides, which in true 104 style, had been quietly rotting.