Class 104 BRC&W 2, 3 & 4-car DMUs

Numbering

An early system of vehicle type classification saw the 3-car sets contain:

When TOPS was introduced each vehicle type was allocated a different class / sub class as shown in the table below. Later the TOPS classes were rationalised and all simply became Class 104.

Alterations to TOPS in the early 1980s saw the need to avoid duplicated numbers, so 50xxx and 56xxx vehicles had to be renumbered to 53xxx and 54xxx respectively, keeping the last three digits.

ER DMCLs 50542-93 were composed of two different Lot numbers, one for each of the batches, and with each Lot number they were built to two Diagrams. The difference between each was allocation of the (non) smoking sections, and a 4-car set would have one of each Diagram.

LMR TCLs 59132-87 had two different Lot numbers, as they were part of two batches.

Original Set Formations

Worksplates

Worksplates were carried on the vehicle solebars to identify the builder and lot number. Many of the worksplate images on the website are from the collections of Simeon Gaskell, John Horne and Tony Spencer.

Many of these Class 104 plates are courtesy of Adrian Northcott.

Driving Instructions

BR33003/21

This was a booklet from the 33003 series, specific to these vehicles.

PDF (1.2mb)

Replacements

In 1961 a new version was issued covering all Blue Square vehicles - BR 33003-92. A companion to this was a "Preparation and Disposal" booklet BR 33003/211.

In 1968 the booklets were replaced by a three part set for Blue Square vehicles Mechanical Transmission):
BR 33003/247 1 - General Data And Equipment
BR 33003/248 2 - Driving Instructions Including Standard Preparation and Disposal Duties
BR 33003/249 3 - Fault Finding Data and Charts

In the early seventies the 33003 series was replaced by the more generic 33056 series of drivers manuals, no longer specific to any coupling code.