These vehicles were mechanically identical to the 79xxx cars only differing in some cases by the make of power unit fitted. From new there were three types of engine used, the original AEC 220 unit (Class 101), Leyland 680 (Class 102), both of 150hp, and the Rolls Royce C6 engine of 180hp or 230hp if supercharged (Class 111).

The two main visible differences from the 79xxx cars were the jumper receptacles and cables were resited below the front buffer beam and the front cowling was omitted

Variations in new vehicles

With such a large production run over the years there were some changes made. All the changes are shown in a table, after an explanation.

Cab front
Two character train describer panels were introduced, sited below the centre cab window of driving cars. In these cars, the two centre marker lights, one at the top of the cab and the other below the centre window, were dispensed with in favour of the train describer, while the two outer marker lights were retained. This modification took place from order 2f commencing with vehicles E50210 / E56062 being delivered in May 1957. The table below shows 4 for four lamps or 2 for 2 lamps and a 2-character train describer.

A variation which affected recognition of driving cars was that the earlier produced vehicles were equipped with very much longer vacuum pipe, rising to the top of the buffer beam. This was changed in February 1959 (order 4) when the first Leyland engined vehicle E51425 was produced with shorter pipes mounted at coupling hook level, all driving cars built after this date carried these shorter pipes. These are shown in the table as L for long and S for short (!). The Leyland engined vehicles are shown as L and AEC ones A.

Guard's van
There were two designs of guards/loading doors. Batch two vehicles received left hand opening guard's doors on both sides of the vehicle (L on the table). For the remaining vehicles these doors became "handed" with the guard's door on the drivers side of the vehicle becoming the right hand door, the opposite guard's door remained on the left (H in the table).

There was also changes to the interior of the van, from batch four. The guard's van bulkhead doorway was moved from the centre of the bulkhead wall and repositioned to the extreme right of the vehicle (second man's side) this enabled a security cage to be installed within the brake van leaving a walkway along one side of the van, the cage contained a sliding gate on the walkway side opposite the bodyside loading doors. On the table these are represented by O - open/original or C - caged/changed.

Interior
Over such a large build there was inevitably variations in the colour schemes used. If anyone disagrees with this information please contact me. 

From a Met-Camm publicity brochure - a rare colour interior photo, although possible a B&W pic that has been 'colourised'. One of the earlier cars, as it has string luggage racks, which are stained maroon. The alloy beading had the centre section painted maroon.

Later Modifications

Vacuum pipes
After production had ceased a vacuum pipe modification was made by the LMR during the mid '60s when its allocation of units received a modified vacuum release pipe mounted beneath the buffer beam, the train pipe remaining in the original position This led to a one up, one down look, which made Midland cans instantly recognisable from other region's units. This modification was also carried out on four ex-ER based power trailer units (50203/6/8/28 56055/8/60/80) which were acquired by the Midland in exchange for the four LMR Rolls Royce powered sets which moved to the ER at NevilIe Hill depot.

Later three more ex-ER vehicles were equipped with the LMR brake pipe mod; vehicles involved were 53168, 53218 and most recently 53164 (the DMBS car now in the celebrity green set 101685). This was fitted in 1992 after it sustained accident damage to the cab front while allocated to CF as part of C388 set, with cars 59387 and 53203, the latter also carrying a modified pipe fitted some 27 years earlier when transferred from the ER to the LMR as part of the exchange mentioned above.

Window Bars Fitted
Vehicles allocated to the north east were fitted with window bars across the passenger door drop lights to prevent accidents to passengers on some restricted clearance routes in that operating area. These were removed from most if not all vehicles by 1980.

Refurbishment
In 1974 a class 101 3-car set was selected as the test bed for the refurbishment scheme.

Re-engining Programme
At the end of 1975 British Rail ordered 300 Leyland 680H diesel engines from Leyland Truck & Bus. The £1¼ million order was to replace the engine in vehicles from Classes 101/119/120. The engine replacement was not part of the refurbishment programme then underway. It was due to the poor availablilty of spares for the original AEC engines.

Delivery commenced in January 1976 at a rate of ten engines a week. They were supplied complete with Leyland fluid couplings and were to drive through the existing mechanical transmissions.

It was quoted that the 680H was the horizontal version of the 680 in use in the majority of London buses, and that for traction use, the engine was de-rated from over 200hp to 181hp, and that even in this de-rated form the new engines provided 20% more power than the previous AEC equipment.

Radio Electronic Token Block
Ten Norwich based 3 Car sets were equipped for radio electronic token block signalling during the 1980s for East Suffolk line use. The vehicles fitted could be identified by the large vertically mounted antenna attached to the second man's side of the cab front just to the left of the destination box when viewed from the front.

The pairings above are the 1986 pairings. Norwich swapped vehicles and set numbers frequently.

Lowestoft, c1990 Peter, Lincolnshire & East Yorkshire Transport Review

After dispersal of these units some vehicles could be seen at depots such as Laira (LA) still sporting the antenna mounting bracket, which projected forward from the cab front.

Conversion To Loco Hauled Stock
In 1987 DTC 54356 was selected for use as an observation car to work trains from Inverness to Kyle Of Lochalsh. Repainted in Highland green and cream and numbered 6300 it was fitted with luxury random seating, ETH and new sealed window units. After a number of years in this condition it was bought for preservation and is now at the Gloucester and Warwick Railway Society site in the Cotswolds.

Facelifted Regional Railways Units
In 1992 the first Facelifted Regional Railways liveried Class 101s made their appearance, initially being allocated to Norwich Crown Point (NC), Cambridge (CA), Longsight (LO), Laira (LA), Tyseley (TS), Haymarket (HA) and Corkerhill (CK), the Corkerhill units being painted in Strathclyde PTE Orange and Black.

By 1994 all vehicles were concentrated on either LO or CK. The former three car sets originally allocated to HA were moved to CK minus their centre trailers which were stored at HA two later moving to LO.

All driving cars carried six digit set numbers below each drivers window at both ends of the set, in the 101 6xx series. Most DTS vehicles were re-seated in 2 + 3 configuration in the former first class areas of the cars, now seating 72 second.

Cab to shore radio telephones were fitted in the driving cabs with dish antennas fitted to the cab roof.

A gallery of these sets can be found here.

Misc
Latterly two further modifications have been made to Regional Railways 101s. The standard drivers windscreen was replaced with thicker laminated glazing and heavy retaining moulding.

The other feature is the fitting of 18" diameter Oleo long shanked buffers in place of the original style shorter and broader shanked Met Camm type and the removal of the buffer mounting stubbs which are no longer required for the longer buffers, only a few vehicles have received this modification.

Later the front ends were standardised, removing 2-character route indicators or extra lamps. Sometimes the top lamps were only crudely plated over. Sheffield, 1st March 1980. Graham Turner www.railblue.com