Which train is more realistic according to the time period considered by the game ? Both ? Only the 101 or the 142 ? Thanks !
Class 101's would have been rare on trains starting in the Manchester area as in 1986 I don't think there were any full class 101 sets allocated to the two Manchester depots, Longsight and Newton Heath. They would have been likely seen on trains starting in the Yorkshire area as Leeds Neville Hill had plenty of them. Class 108's would have been the dominant first generation DMU with the class 104 probably quite common. Class 142's were certainly around although I am not sure exactly what services they operated in 1986. When they were introduced they were often used on longer distance service of which they were not designed or intended for. I doubt in 1986 they would have been common on Morecombe branch shuttles but might have appeared on through trains. So I think the answer is likely the class 142 in some respects but the class 101 would have likely been seen too.
surprisingly according to railcar.co.uk, newton heath did receive 33 101 vehicles in early 1986 up until august mainly from Chester and tyseley, up from 6 in january. looks like they replaced the 120s and a few 104s which were being withdrawn. they only lasted until late 1987. Heaton had a full 101 allocation so would be frequent at Carlisle from Newcastle and kingmoor had a full allocation of 108s at the time.
Heaton was all 101s until the 143s were delivered, and gained 108s when Kingmoor closed. They tried keeping the 108s on their old routes but they did sometimes get onto HT's own routes, for which they were fairly unsuited. https://www.flickr.com/photos/66289212@N07/7797467114 Not sure when Heaton's last 101s went but it'll probably have been around then.
As others have said the 101’s were rare in North Lancs or Cumbria (apart from Newcastle to Carlisle) so it’s a bit of fudge. The 108’s dominated the local services. Class 142’s certainly worked to Barrow, there is a Railscene cab ride from 1988 which passes one or two.
There's several operational preserved examples, albeit none mainline certified. 333 cars were built between 1958 and 1961 according to Wikipedia, with withdrawals between 1990 and 1993. It would be nice to have a 108 IMO.
Heaton's 101s went in the time frame you mentioned Jan 88 to Jan 89. the last 2 survived until 8/12/89 and the last one 10/5/90 one vehicle did last longer until Nov 92 in departmental use. i think as old Vern pointed out it is a bit of a fudge. as daft as it is we went on holiday to the Isle of man in summer 88 and got a train from platform 3a at Stockport straight though to haysham port. if that was a longsight turn it would of been a class 127 to throw another in the mix one question i have been trying to answer, who's responsibility were the Morecombe/haysham shuttles and the Windermere branch if anyone hasen't already have a look at https://www.railcar.co.uk/ id recommend it, its quite a substantial database on first gen units from the 50s until the 2010s. with a mine of information in there. id recommend it for route/loco pack devs as well for some insight. only thing it hasn't got is second gen DMUs
