So now we know what the 1970's pack consists of, which is a post 1974 class 08, a class 101 in the guise they were running from Reading in 1988/1989 before getting NSE livery and layers for three loco's as they appeared at the end of the 70's and through the 80's (i.e. after the end of the Westerns). The class 117, was the commuter DMU for the Paddington to Reading service for 30 years pretty much uninhibited. It was only really towards the end of first generation DMU's in the early 90's that you would have seen other class at Paddington, the exception being the bubble cars, class 121 of course. The class 117 was built by Pressed Steel at Lindwood near Paisley and delivered in 1959 and 1960, BRCW built the similar but smaller class of class 118 at the same times. All these units were to be based in the London division of the Western region at Southall and Reading, the Bristol division at Bath Road and the Plymouth and Exeter division at Newton Abbot, the latter allocation were all class 118's if I recall, which later worked from Plymouth Laira after Newton Abbot closed. All units were based on the BR standard design with "Derby" fronts as per the class 116 but with toilets in the centre car unlike the class 116's. The Reading 117's stayed there for most of their lives, in the early 1990's with the introduction of Networkers the Reading sets went to Bletchley as two car units where they worked Gospel Oak to Barking, Clapham Junction to Willesden Junction and Bedford to Bletchley services alongside a handful of class 121 units. The last of these were withdrawn in 1999. They wore BR green then BR blue livery. From the mid 70's BR started refurbishing them and they started to emerge in the white with blue stripe livery. This livery, from around 1978/79 was abandoned, as not being a practical colour for the blue/grey livery previously only carried by intercity and cross country stock, not local DMU's. In the late 80's they wore Network South East livery until the end of their days. The Bristol sets went to Tyseley in the late 80's, some of these were refurbished and painted into Regional Railways livery and ended their days in 2000 working in the Edinburgh area. A handful of sets worked on the Cornwall branches from Penzance depot in the 90's up till around 1996. Many class 117 vehicles have been preserved. Images from the Railcar Association site: https://www.railcar.co.uk/images/uploads/117/800/class-117-dmu-1482118846-800.jpg Set B430 later T305 wearing GWR chocolate and cream, specially painted for the GWR 150 celebrations in 1985. It was withdrawn in this livery. I remember seeing it at Stourbridge Junction a few times. https://www.railcar.co.uk/images/uploads/117/800/class-117-dmu-1453491737-800.jpg In BR blue with one of the three class 101 vehicles at Reading used to strengthen the sets. These were the only class 101 vehicles working between Reading and Paddington in the 1970's and they were quite short lived. https://www.railcar.co.uk/images/uploads/117/800/class-117-dmu-1552014648-800.jpg Standard blue. https://www.railcar.co.uk/images/uploads/117/800/class-117-dmu-1453843600-800.jpg This is the white and blue stripe livery which refurbished DMU's started to appear in from 1975, this was abandoned around 1978 for the blue and grey livery as it was considered impractical, although I have seen report of depots still painting DMU's in this livery as late as 1984. I would love to see this livery made by DTG as it is very attractive in my opinion, especially when clean!
The following DMU Classes were all visitors to Paddington during the 1970s... 117 121 123 128 There were a few others that appeared randomly but these were the largest selection.
I would love to see those, the class 121 would be ideal for an extended Greenford branch. I always loved the look of the Gloucester class 128. I could see a 121 being made at some point as it is probably in top three best known DMU's. The class 123 would be amazing too, I think they were used on the Oxford services? I can't see one of those being made sadly, if they won't make a class 117 a class 123 would be far too niche!
The Class 121 are a great choice for use in multiple on the mainline and alone on the branches (if we can ever convince DTG or others to do them). The Class 128 would offer a little difference with parcels work as well as the fact that they were the most powerful single car DMUs of the first generation. As for Class 123, these would work so well with both GWE and its new timetable as well as NTP. I believe that they had a 90mph top speed as well, which vastly improves upon Class 101 topping out at around 68mph.
I travelled on both during the early 90s between Paddington and Hayes or West Drayton prior to the Class 165 introduction. They gave the GWML so much character with slam doors and guards car.
The Class 117 were laid out to a suburban design with more bodyside doors than the Class 101. Otherwise they were very similar.
We used to get them on the Stourbridge town branch, including the Midline liveried one 55033. Three times, once in the 70's and twice in the late 80's/early 90's they were involved in accidents.
