Miniature Heroes - Introducing Our Brand New Class 142 DMU Family!

[Warbonnet]

Few trains divide opinion quite like the Class 142 ‘Pacer’ - but their place in Britain’s railway story is undeniable. 

From rural branches to hard-worked commuter routes, these unmistakable railbuses became a true everyday icon - the true unsung heroes of the UK rail scene.

Now, Accurascale brings them to life like never before with a brand new model that captures every ounce of their character, charm and individuality.

Packed with cutting-edge features, exceptional detailing and smooth running performance, whether pottering along a quiet branch or strengthening a busy multiple-unit formation, the ‘Pacer’ delivers versatility in spades.

With a wide range of liveries and authentic variations, this exciting new release offers something for every layout.

Unsung Heroes: The 'Pacer' Story

The Class 142 ‘Pacer’ DMUs were British Rail’s most successful take on the railbus concept, combining bus-based bodies with a simple chassis to create a low-cost solution for lightly used routes.

Introduced in the mid-1980s after a series of prototypes, they quickly became a familiar sight across the North West, Yorkshire, Wales and the South West.

Although early reliability issues affected performance, upgrades in the 1990s significantly improved their operation, allowing them to become dependable workhorses on both rural and commuter services. Passing through multiple operators after privatisation, they remained in service until 2020, and today many survive in preservation, valued as a distinctive and enduring part of Britain’s railway history.

The Accurascale Class 142 DMU debuts in a curated selection of iconic liveries, ranging from original BR Provincial and the Western Region ‘Skipper’ chocolate and cream to the later Greater Manchester PTE and Northern Rail eras. With multiple running numbers available, we make it easy to assemble authentic paired sets or recreate specific regional allocations.

Despite its compact wheelbase, this ‘Pacer’ boasts a heavyweight specification. The model features a finely detailed full interior, a smooth low-profile drive system, and a sophisticated electronics suite optimised for reliable performance.

Magnetic BSI couplings provide seamless compatibility with upcoming Class 153 and 155 units, while the clever internal circuitry allows both vehicles to be operated via a single DCC decoder.

The lighting suite is fully featured and independently controllable, offering directional headlights with day/night modes, a warm interior glow, and discrete cab illumination.

To ensure the 'Pacer' performs as well as it looks, the model incorporates our acclaimed 'Stay-Alive' power pack. This guarantees smooth, flicker-free running and consistent performance, even across complex pointwork or demanding layouts.

Our new Class 142 'Pacer' DMUs are due to arrive in Q1 2027, and you can pre-order yours today exclusively from Accurascale with no deposit down - reserve yours now to avoid missing out!

They're as good value in model form as in real life - priced from £199.98 (DC/DCC Ready) and £299.99 (DCC Sound-fitted). You'll also benefit from free UK delivery and collect Accurascale Reward Points that you can exchange for discounts on future purchases.

We've produced multiple running numbers for each livery, and they're the ideal companions for our forthcoming Class 153/Class 155 DMUs too!

 

PRE-ORDER YOUR MODELS TODAY

 

Meet the New Range

We have recreated four iconic 'Pacer' liveries spanning the decades of the trains in our first run. Read here the detailed stories behind each livery and how they can fit into your layout. 

Greater Manchester PTE:

Running numbers & destinations featured:

142003 (55544+55594) Crewe / Special
142008 (55549+55599) Bolton / Stockport
142012 (55553+55603) Manchester Victoria (via Oldham) / Blackburn

The 1980s saw several paint schemes make the jump from bus to DMU as the Passenger Transport Executives (PTEs), later Authorities (PTAs), began to sanction repaints covering rolling stock they sponsored. One of the most attractive was the Greater Manchester Transport orange/brown/white that had been adopted in 1981 and this was applied to the first 14 ‘Pacers’ 142001-142014 which were delivered in 1985.

Based out of Newton Heath depot and seen at both Piccadilly and Victoria, they worked all across the North West, including to Blackburn, Colne, Chester, Helsby, Liverpool Lime Street, Llandudno, New Mills / Rose Hill, Oldham, Ormskirk, Preston, Rochdale, Southport, Stalybridge and Wigan North Western, as well as longer distance journeys to Barrow-in-Furness and the Cumbrian coast, Blackpool North/South, Carlisle, Doncaster, Sheffield and York.

142012 represents the Class 142s in their as-delivered condition with original destination blind, while 142008 has the smaller blind assembly introduced on the second batch, revised heating arrangement with the extra ventilation grille on one side of the body and additional warning labelling for passengers. The third GMPTE-liveried ‘Pacer’ is preserved 142003 with revised double-leaf doors and chassis-mounted sanding equipment.

BR Western Region 'Skipper'

Running numbers & destinations featured:

142015 (55556+55606) Exeter St Davids / Paignton
142024 (55565+55615) Newcastle / Middlesborough

The next 13 units, 142015-142027, were for use on branch lines in Devon and Cornwall. New to Plymouth Laira between September-December 1985 and branded as ‘Skippers’ they were delivered in a chocolate and cream scheme in a reverse of the Great Western coaching stock livery, appropriate considering the GW150 celebrations that had been taking place that same year. This was applied to the same format as later introduced on the Provincial ‘Pacers’ complete with the same white waist band. Entering service on routes including Barnstaple-Exeter-Exmouth, Liskeard-Looe, Newton Abbot-Paignton, Par-Newquay, Penzance-St Erth-St Ives, Plymouth-Gunnislake and Truro-Falmouth, their introduction was not a happy one.

Despite the best efforts of newly-installed greasing equipment, they were found to be entirely unsuited to the South West with the tight curves and difficult gradients leading to excessive tyre wear and wheel noise on the long-wheelbase units. They were transferred north starting with 142017 in August 1987 and the ‘Skippers’ were no more after the last day of November with the fleet being split between Newton Heath and Neville Hill.

 However, it wasn’t long before the majority of the units were on the move again to Heaton to supplement the Alexander-Barclay built Class 143s. Of our releases, 142015 is as built and firmly set in the South West. With its Exeter St Davids / Paignton destinations it would have made a fine sight on the sea wall at Dawlish. Meanwhile, Tyne & Wear-based 142024 has the revised destination blind, extra bodyside vent and subtly different labelling.

BR Provincial Blue

Running numbers & destinations featured:

142077 (55727+55773) Hull / York
142096 (55746+55792) Preston / Liverpool Lime St

The majority of the ‘Pacer’ fleet, 142028-142096, was delivered in the attractive Provincial two-tone blue and white livery and the new trains were split between Newton Heath (Manchester) and Neville Hill (Leeds). They could be found working similar diagrams to the GMPTE fleet in the North West, while on the other side of the Pennines they became common on local services in North and West Yorkshire and the West Riding.

Destinations included Bradford, Cleethorpes, Doncaster, Goole, Halifax, Huddersfield, Hull, Ilkley, Knottingley, Leeds, Marsden, Scarborough, Scunthorpe, Selby, Sheffield, Skipton, Sleaford and York, as well as longer distance routes such as Leeds or York to Blackpool North / Lancaster / Manchester Victoria / Morecambe and even Scarborough to Holyhead!

Both units in our first run are taken from the second batch of units, known as Class 142/1 with Newton Heath-based 142096 – the last built member of the class – in as delivered condition, while 142077 is in post 1994 condition with revised double-leaf doors. These are painted yellow as they originally were on the converted units. This unit also has the extra heating vent on the bodysides, revised door warning stickers and the NRN roof pod provided in an accessory pack.

Northern Rail

Running numbers & destinations featured:

142062 (55712+55758) Carlisle / Lancaster
142070 (55720+55766) Bishop Auckland / Saltburn

Rounding off the first run of the Accurascale ‘Pacer’ fleet is a pair of Northern Rail units, once ubiquitous from the late 2000s almost anywhere between Chester / Sheffield and Carlisle / Newcastle. 79 members of the Serco-Abellio operated fleet carried the purple/blue/grey livery, although sadly none received promotional vinyls like several of the company’s Class 150, 156 and 158 DMUs. The Northern fleet was complicated by bringing together units that had been refurbished to different levels by various predecessors, including several different seating configurations.

For the first run, we will be focussing on units that have retained their classic Leyland bus-style 2+3 seating. Ex-First North Western 142062, one of 12 sets to return to the South West in 2007, represents the first half of the Northern era. Based at Newton Heath it gained this livery in 2009 and was scrapped in at EMR Kingsbury in January 2020. 142070 was another of the FNW units to briefly see service in the Exeter area in 2007/8.

Also repainted Northern in 2009, our model of this ‘Pacer’ wears the additional bicycle and disabled stickers applied to the hopper vents and other later warning labels. Both sets also feature the extra cab front louvre, plated roof heating vents, factory-installed NRN roof pods and sanding equipment.

 

PRE-ORDER YOUR MODELS TODAY

 

 

View the full article

[DJ Dangerous]

Is / was there any connection between the Class 142 and the NIR railbus?

[Galteemore]

The 5 LEVs, of which RB1 was one, played a part in the genesis of the Pacers. One of the LEVs is apparently still in Ireland, part of the abortive UK gauge line near Dundalk 

[DJ Dangerous]

The faces look quite different on the 142’s, but they still have that Leyland National spirit.

[Mol_PMB]

11 minutes ago, DJ Dangerous said:

The faces look quite different on the 142’s, but they still have that Leyland National spirit.

I'd rather drink Meths than Leyland National spirit. The buses were bad enough, but the Pacers - Ugh! 

Those of you that moan about commuting on 450s or 29000s don't know how good you had it - the 142s were truly dreadful and I couldn't wait to see them destroyed. Out of principle I won't visit a heritage railway that has one. Needless to say I won't be troubling Accurascale's order book on this project.

[Westcorkrailway]

17 hours ago, Mol_PMB said:

I'd rather drink Meths than Leyland National spirit. The buses were bad enough, but the Pacers - Ugh! 

Those of you that moan about commuting on 450s or 29000s don't know how good you had it - the 142s were truly dreadful and I couldn't wait to see them destroyed. Out of principle I won't visit a heritage railway that has one. Needless to say I won't be troubling Accurascale's order book on this project.

Infairness, there are people on here who traveled in AEC/C class push pulls in the early 1980s which must have been equal or (probobly) worse the any 142! 

[Mol_PMB]

7 minutes ago, Westcorkrailway said:

Infairness, there are people on here who traveled in AEC/C class push pulls in the early 1980s which must have been equal or (probobly) worse the any 142! 

I will concede that. 

One of the many bad features of the 142s for commuter services was that they simply weren't big enough, and were usually badly overcrowded to the point of leaving people behind to wait for 30 or 60 minutes for the next one. And I gather the same was often true on the CIE suburban services in the dark days pre-DART. When they were that full, 142s stopped being 'bouncy castles' because they were hard down on their bumpstops and every irregularity in the track was transmitted directly into the bodyshell. 

Personally I don't have the mental scars of the 1970s push-pulls and with the benefit of my rose-tinted spectacles I'd be delighted to buy models of AEC railcars and C class locos!

[Galteemore]

As one who recalls both in service , the AECs were a good design allowed to fall into decrepitude. The Pacers were a bad design allowed to go into production!