Class 105/6 Cravens 2 & 3-car DMUs

Express Parcels

E53373 + E53364 at York on the 11th Oct 1986. 54A South Dock.

The Eastern Region converted (by removing the seating and adding "Express Parcels" to the side) nine DMBSs in 1986 for parcels use. They were used out of Cambridge on Red Star traffic and could be found in places such as Liverpool St, York, Leeds, Manchester Victoria and Bradford.

The first four conversions were done in June 1986 and these were allocated numbers in the parcels series (55944-7) but these were never carried. The other five were converted at the end of the year, one no doubt a replacement for 51293 which was placed into store at the same time. The eight vehicles now in parcel traffic were all from the same 533xx batch with the blank top marker lamp on the cab roof dome.

They were normally formed into pairs of the same type but hybrids with 101/120/128s were not unknown. Tail loads, normally a BG, were not uncommon, and the some of the vehicles had "Max Tail 40T" stencilled onto the lower cab front. Some were given a white blind displaying "Express Parcels".

53367 / 53369 arriving into Leeds station on the 9th May 1987. Merlin.

In spring 1987 a yellow/red (the Red Star colours) waist stripe began to be applied to the vehicles, and the "Express Parcels" lettering would be removed from the number one (drivers) side. One of the first to have this was 53361, this also received a top light grey stripe, the only one to have this. The waist sripes were only applied to seven vehicles as 53362 was another early casualty being withdrawn in September 1987.

There was one 1988 withdrawal — 53369 in September — the remaining six were withdrawn in March 1989.

Identification

There were enough differences on the front end to make it easy to identify all of the nine vehicles in photographs.

Some are immediately recognisable — 51293 being the only one without the top lamp; 53361 with its grey stripe (and a dent on the right corner of the cab); and 53362 was the only one with a white cab roof dome. Only one had blue squares (although they looked black) — 53364. 53364 and 51293 were also easy to recognise by the much lower than normal electrification warning flash in the left cab window.

Identifying the others can be done by a combination of other indicators. Three vehicles had brackets ("Brackets" in the table below) that once held the Stratford headlamps, one — 53361 — had wires sticking out in this location instead. When the "Max Tail 40T" ("Max" in the table below) was added it was often applied in different places/styles. Only one vehicle had two windscreen wipers, some had traces of the second wiper and not all had covers over the spindles.

These details are shown in the table. There were yet more differences between them — for example at the van end there was sometimes the Red Star logo (as in the image, Malcolm Clements), this could be in different places; not all vehicles kept the BR logo on the sides when the stripes were applied; some had mini Red Star logos under the vehicle number — these are not shown.

^a 51293 was stored 16/11/86
^b 53361 also had a dent on the right cab corner
^c "40T" was directly under the "Max" not centred like the others

"Max" explanation: LH - left hand side of cab; RH - right hand side; L - to the lower left of the marker lamp; P/L - partially left/partially under the marker lamp; R - to the lower right; RH L / No - 53373 had the text before the stripes were added but not after.

"Wipers" explanation: 1 - one wiper (right window); 1+C - one wiper fitted (right window), the left window still had the cover over the spindle mechanism (see image below); 1+nc - there were no covers over the mechanisms on either side, the left window still had the spindle; 2 - wipers on both windows