Aln Valley Railway Railcar Group

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Aln Valley Railway Railcar Group

This page follows the preservation of 144004 and 144016 at the Aln Valley Railway, Northumberland.

20/05/2026

55816’s cab front was painted with HMG KX white undercoat today. This is used to block out any discoloured areas as well as forming a good base for the topcoats. Next week it will receive the first coat of yellow. A start was also made on undercoating the cab end of 55839.

16/05/2026

144004 was used today for driver and guard training. Similar sessions will take place throughout the summer as we have a good number of volunteers keen to learn these roles.
The unit has had a busy week, being used for the All Things Diesel event last weekend and for a private hire by Northumberland Vintage Tractor Club on Thursday evening.

29/04/2026

The roof of 55839 has now been fully repainted, bar a few minor details. Contrast this with the roof of 55852, on the right hand side of the photo.

On 55839, the cab end will be painted next. To mask any staining on the yellow areas, white undercoat will have to be applied first. The unit number on the cab end will be re-applied, as soon as the yellow painting has been completed.

55804 and 55827 (144004) each received a fuel delivery today, which will keep them going for a while yet.

09/04/2026

55839’s roof is beginning to look smart. We are also making steady progress with the underframe lettering on the other cars of 144016.

25/03/2026

The recent painting of 55816's underframe can be seen here, with new lettering applied to the battery box and also to the underframe adjacent to the battery charging socket. The bodysides of 144016 were painted in 2025 and the cab ends and remaining parts of the underframes will be painted next.

The first car to be treated will be 55839, whose cab end was cleaned today.

22/03/2026

See poster for details of our 2026 Pacer Driving Experiences. These will take place in the Autumn and booking is now open.

13/02/2026

We're going to be offering Pacer Driver Experiences this year, with scheduled slots available in September, October and November. These will cost £200 for sessions of 4 hours. More details to follow! If you want more information NOW, just drop a line to:
[email protected]

At present, we're busy preparing 144004 and 144016 for the 2026 season. Working outside in January and February can be a challenge due to the low light levels, cold temperatures and wet weather, so we try to concentrate on jobs inside the carriages or in the workshop.

The accompanying photo gives a good impression of our Pacers in the winter gloom!

15/12/2025

Last weekend 144016 was used for the AVR's Santa Specials. The Pacer team's role is to ensure that the three-car set is available for use as the Santa train . We also have to install the decorations and sound system, and to black out the windows of 55816, which is used by Santa all day.

The racks in 55839 and 55852 are filled with dummy presents and dressed with tinsel and fairy lights. This certainly makes a change from the normal maintenance and takes up several man days of work. The two passenger saloons end up looking quite different to anything on the national network!

On the maintenance side, we had to change the starter batteries on 55839, which refused to turn the starter motor on a couple of cold mornings. Once these had been replaced with a spare set, 55839 fired up with little effort. We're always impressed how easily the Cummins LTA10-R engines start on cold days.

23/11/2025

This week's maintenance activities have concentrated on 144016, in preparation for its next scheduled use for the AVR's Santa Specials in mid-December. The unit is ideal for this duty as it has three cars, all with heating and lighting.

Various niggles have been sorted out, including the replacement of hinges on the covers of door control equipment. Defects are recorded in the HOPS computer system, so that all involved can track the progress of a fault from initial reporting, through to repair and closure.

The photo shows 144016 at Lionheart on 15/11/2025 and was taken by Adam Smallwood.

16/11/2025

Saturday 15th November saw a training session for Pacer guards taking place. Both 144004 and 144016 were in use for training and ran to Greenrigg Halt.

For some folk, the day provided an introduction to the units and for others it was a consolidation session before assessments in early 2026.

Plenty of fun was had by all and a few minor items were identified for follow-up by the Pacer engineering team!

We're always looking for new volunteers to support our Pacers - be it as train crew, engineering or just general support with cleaning and painting. All are welcome.

In the first instance, just email us via: [email protected]

OR use the "Send message" button on this post.

Address

Lionheart Enterprise Park
Alnwick
NE662EZ

Website

https://www.alnvalleyrailway.co.uk/pacers

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