The British Rail Class 155 is a diesel multiple-unit passenger train. These DMUs were built by Leyland Bus at Workington between 1987 and 1988 as part of BR's replacement of its ageing first-generation diesel fleet. The British Rail Class 158 Express Sprinter is a diesel multiple-unit passenger train, built for British Rail between 1989 and 1992 by British Rail Engineering Limited at its Derby Litchurch Lane Works. The British Rail Class 153 Super Sprinters are single-coach railcars converted from two-coach Class 155 diesel multiple units in the early 1990s. The class was intended for service on rural branch lines where passenger numbers do not justify longer trains, or to boost the capacity on trains with high passenger volume. whats interesting is sometimes on the st ives branch when the class 150 isnt available for some reason. they will use either 158s or 153s instead so with this loco pack we could see the 158 or 153 subbing into st ives services heres basically how each sprinter is different from eachover the class 153: usually one coach and mostly does stopping services the class 155: similar body shell to the 153 but now 2 cars long. and meant for fast mainline services the class 158: the 'express' sprinter as its called. built for long non stop mainline services max speed of 90mph. doesn't stop at all stations my conclusion : this loco pack would be great you are basically getting a 3 in 1 price and does expand the amount of locos to drive on WCL. would be an amazing pack
i’d love all the sprinters but unfortunately i don’t believe 155s and 158s operated in the west often enough in this time period to warrant making the models, however if anything a class 153 seems the most likely loco add on to the route
Would love more Sprinters in the game. If I remember the timeline correctly, 155's were introduced in 1988 and allocated to Cardiff Canton from where they worked to Crewe, Birmingham, Portsmouth and Penzance. They were split into 153's as the 158's entered service. 158's took over the services apart from the Birmingham run which was extended to Nottingham and covered by Tyseley 156's. The Cardiff 153's worked in West Wales and the Heart of Wales line. They had about 8 and the rest were scattered around the country. I don't think they were seen in Cornwall until the late 1990's.
The Class 155 and 158 did operate to Penzance as far as I am aware, but only on the longer distance services to Exeter and Bristol, not the branches. The Class 153 is the most ideal but would probably need to be operated in pairs for it to substitute for the Class 150 (there's an annoying limit where trains can only sub in if they're the same length). Even better if Rivet were prepared to update the route to fix the many issues still present, tied in with some sort of paid route expansion such as a Class 153 add-on.
or, as class 153s do this irl, they could maybe couple up to class 150s, and do longer services, but i am not sure on how that would work
