Resources - Dean Forest DMU Group booklet (Mac Winfield), Motive Power Monthly, Railway Gazette, Trains Illustrated, Railway Magazine, Railway Modeller, Railway Observer, Rail Enthusiast etc.

Class 105/6 Cravens 2/3-car sets

Cravens Ltd. of Darnall, Sheffield built 405 vehicles, later classified as Classes 105/106/112/113/129. Classes 105 and 106 were by far the most numerous with 302 examples, and the two types only differed by their choice of power units, and were later both classified as 105s, so are dealt with together here.

They were integrally-constructed steel vehicles with bodyside profiles identical to Mk I stock, using the same types of doors and windows (Cravens also built Mk Is). The sets operated in areas around Manchester, East Anglia, East & North London, Newcastle, Scotland, Cumbria and Lincolnshire. The last vehicles were withdrawn in 1988 and three examples are preserved.

Information on the Class 105s in Lincolnshire and East Anglia and a variety of pictures can be found on the web site of the Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire Transport Review.

Orders

The vehicles were ordered over the years in five batches, and these batches are referred to on the rest of these pages.

Batch One DMBSs 50359-94 DTCs 56114-49

This consisted of 36 power/trailer sets, 31 for the NER and 5 for the LMR. The first 14 for the NER were the Leyland engined examples, later becoming Class 106. I found no reference to when the order was placed, although the first vehicles were delivered in August '56.

Batch Two DMBSs 50752-84 DMCs 50785-817 TCs 59307-25

These 66 power cars and 19 trailers formed 19 3-car sets and 14 power twins for the LMR and were ordered at the start of 1956. They were quoted as intended to be used on the Birmingham, Manchester and Derby - Nottingham - Leicester areas. The first vehicles were delivered in Sep. '57.

Mention in the press at the time refers to the DMBSs as type A3, the DMCs as type B1, and the centre cars as type D. This was a very short-lived classification scheme. Of note was that a few months afterwards British United Traction issued a press release stating that it had received orders totaling £830,000. This included the equipment for those 66 Cravens power cars, the 3 Class 129 Cravens parcel cars, and 98 Class 120 power cars and 47 Class 120 trailers being built at Swindon.

I have seen many references to some of the centre cars being built as trailer seconds, but I have doubts over both types being built by Cravens, I suspect that they were converted soon afterwards. Why? The BR diagram book, which is pretty reliable, shows all vehicles as TC's. And secondly, the numbers are at random. If two types were built, they would have been allocated two separate batches of numbers, ie. 59307-14 and 59315-25.

Batch Three DMBSs 51254-301 DTCs 56412-59

These 48 power trailer sets were ordered around May '57 for the ER, and deliveries commenced in May '58.

Batch Four DMBSs 51471-94 DTCs 56460-83

These power/trailer sets were for the ER (2) and the ScR (22) and were ordered around May '58, being delivered from Feb. '59.

Batch Five DMBS 50249

This vehicle was either ordered with or just after batch four for the NER, certainly by June '58. It is often quoted that this vehicle was a replacement for Met-Camm 50173, which was written off after an accident at Hexham in 1957. But: Why build a Cravens to operate in a Met-Camm set when Met-Camms were still in production? And more importantly, 50173 was a DMS, whereas 50249 was a DMBS.

Cravens built the Class 105's continuously right up to the end of batch four in June '59 (i.e. the first batch two cars were delivered the week after the last batch one vehicles), with the exception of 50249. It was delivered after a three month gap. In between the first single engined vehicles were delivered.