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British Rail Class 121The British Rail Class 121 diesel multiple units were built by Pressed Steel in 1960. Description Sixteen single-car driving motor vehicles, called "Bubble Cars" were built, numbered 55020-55035. These were supplemented by ten trailer vehicles, numbered 56280-289 (later renumbered 54280-289). Current Operations Upon privatisation of Britain's railways, the Class 121 fleet was only operated by one passenger company, namely Silverlink, with several more units in departmental duties with Railtrack. Chiltern Railways In 2003, Chiltern Railways surprised many by reintroducing "Heritage" diesel multiple units on its Aylesbury to Princes Risborough shuttle service. For this purpose, unit 121020 (vehicle 55020) was purchased from Network Rail, and heavily refurbished to allow it to operate passenger services. It was repainted into Chiltern Railways blue livery. The introduction of this unit allowed the release of a Class 165 "Turbo" unit for refurbishment. This unit has been fitted with automatic door locking and other safety features, and thus is exempt from the 31st December 2004 deadline for the withdrawal of all Mark 1 vehicles. Network Rail Network Rail (NR) operates a small fleet of former Class 121 vehicles for various departmental roles. These have been reclassified as Class 960 departmental units. Duties include route learning, video surveying of track, Severn Tunnel emergency tunnel evacuation and sandite application. Units are painted in various liveries including Network SouthEast (NSE), Railtrack's brown livery, Railtrack's blue/green livery, and Newtork Rail's new all-over yellow livery. In addition, two units have been specially repainted in old BR liveries, namely maroon and blue/grey. The current fleet is listed below: | olspan=2|Vehicle No. | align=left rowspan=2|Livery | align=left rowspan=2|Use | align=left rowspan=2|Status | | epartmenal No. | Former No. | | lign=center|960002 | align=center|977722 | align=center|55020 | NSE | Sandite/Route-learning unit | Sold to Chiltern Railways | | lign=center|960010 | align=center|977858 | align=center|55024 | BR Maroon | Sandite unit | In traffic | | lign=center|960011 | align=center|977859 | align=center|55025 | Railtrack Blue/Green | Video survey unit | In traffic | | lign=center|960012 | align=center|977860 | align=center|55028 | SWT Blue/Red | Route-learning unit | In traffic (South West Trains) | | lign=center|960013 | align=center|977866 | align=center|55030 | NSE | Sandite unit | In traffic | | lign=center|960014 | align=center|977873 | align=center|55022 | BR Blue/Grey | Route-learning unit | In traffic | | lign=center|960021 | align=center|977723 | align=center|55021 | Railtrack Brown | Sandite/Route-learning unit | In traffic | | lign=center|960302 | align=center|977975 | align=center|55027 | NR Yellow | Severn Tunnel emergency unit | In traffic | | lign=center|960303 | align=center|977976 | align=center|55031 | NR Yellow | Severn Tunnel emergency unit | In traffic | | lign=center|- | align=center|977968 | align=center|55029 | EurailScout Yellow | Video survey unit | In traffic | Silverlink Silverlink inherited a small fleet of four "Bubble Cars". They were mainly used on the Marston Vale Line from Bletchley to Bedford, as well as non-electrified lines in North London, such as Gospel Oak to Barking. The units replaced the previous fleet of Class 108 and Class 115 units, and were supplemented with a fleet of Class 117 units cascaded from Thames Valley services. The four units, nos. 55023/27/29/31, were based at Bletchley depot, where staff repainted set L123 (55023) into its original British Railways green livery. The others remained in obsolete Network SouthEast livery. In 1996, set L123 was withdrawn from traffic, and the other three were hired to Great Eastern for use on the Sudbury branch to Sudbury . These returned to Bletchley in 1997/98. Two of the units (121027/029) were repainted into Silverlink's purple and green livery, and the third (121031) was repainted into Network SouthEast livery. The three units also received names from withdrawn Class 117 units. The units were replaced on Silverlink duties in 2001 by Class 150 "Sprinter" units cascaded from Central Trains. The units have all since been transferred to departmental duties. Preservation "Bubble Cars" have proved popular for preservation on heritage railways.
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