DMU Heaven, Lincoln Central, England. July 15th

The DMU or Diesel Multiple Unit, is the staple of passenger services on British Railways. Wether it be a single, self propelled railcar on a rural branch line or a high speed set on a mainline between Englands largest cities. Either way there are lots of them and they are very colourful to watch.  I hope you enjoy this selection of pictures from a trip "back home".
The untimely passing of my father meant a quick dash back to England to attend his funeral. To get away from it all I managed to get in a lunchtimes trainspotting at Lincoln Central Railway station. I used to trainspot in Lincoln in my younger years so it was nice to go back to my "old stomping ground" so to speak. Though nowadays Lincoln St. Marks station has long since closed to be replaced by shops. All Rail traffic being diverted to the larger Lincoln Central. I had no idea what to expect even though the new station is much busier than the old one. In fact modifications were being made to the signalling whilst I was there. Luckily for me things were rather busy. First up was this Class 153 single unit railcar operated by Northern Rail. It was terminating its journey at Lincoln from Sheffield. Seen here passing under one of the soon to be replaced semaphore signals that are common around Lincoln.

Blue, Purple and Grey make for an interesting colour combination. So much more than when I was a spotter. Back then, DMU's were either allover Rail Blue or Blue with a grey band around the windows. Things are much more colourful these days. Like this next 2 car DMU. Class 156 unit 156405 operated by East Midlands Trains. This unit was running between Leicester and Lincoln and was to head back to Leicester pretty soon.

To be honest I was a little bored with the camera angle here after these 2 shots, so I decided to move down closer towards East Holmes yard signal box, for no better reason than it shares my name... Within minutes I was rewarded with another single unit railcar another class 153 unit on its way to Grimsby operated by East Midlands Trains passing over the drain entering into the Brayford Pool

However, instead of proceeding directly into the station it paused and waited to be give the right away to enter the station and met with another class 153 Railcar leaving the station.

As that Railcar passed me and the listed Great Northern design signal box I could see that it was on its way to Newark. The bright multi-coloured livery indicated that this is operated by East Midlands Trains.

There was still no let up in the endless procession of DMU's as next up was the East Midlands Trains service to Leicester under the care of DMU 156405

Then, no more than a couple of minutes later the Northern Rail railcar that I had seen arrive when I started returned to Sheffield.

The colourful DMU's are fun to watch these days but I was craving a bit of Loco haulage and next up was a Freightliner Class 66 number 66618 with the mouthful of a name "Railways Ilustrated Annual Photographic Awards Alan Barnes" with an Oil train from Humberside

Very nice but there was still more to come in my procession of DMU's This time a Class 142 Pacer. It looks to be in the livery of Arriva Trains but there is no lettering on the side to confirm that.

So I was more than Happy with what had transpired this lunchtime. So Mrs TS-USA and I decided to carry on walking around Lincoln and what should happen as I turned the corner on to the High Street? You guessed it, another DMU crossed the high street. I had to snap a picture as the magnificent Lincoln Cathedral is in the background.

I was thinking that must be it but as my wife and I sat to take a rest the crossing gates closed yet again and a Southwest Trains DMU entered the station. Southwest Trains?  What the devil is something like that doing in Lincoln? By no stretch of the imagination can Lincoln be said to be in the Southwest of the country. It must have been some kind of excursion.

With that my wife and I turned to walk away and the crossing gates went off yet again. This time it was the Pacer unit I had seen earlier returining from whence it came.

To be honest I don't think I've been on a streak like that anywhere, ever. It was fun to watch the variety of colourful trains and it is good to know that rail traffic is very healthy in Lincoln.