{"id":5686,"date":"2011-12-30T10:40:50","date_gmt":"2011-12-30T10:40:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/?p=5686"},"modified":"2011-12-30T10:36:18","modified_gmt":"2011-12-30T10:36:18","slug":"fifty-year-old-train-still-in-service-as-br-class-121-rumbles-along-the-cardiff-bay-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/fifty-year-old-train-still-in-service-as-br-class-121-rumbles-along-the-cardiff-bay-line\/","title":{"rendered":"Fifty year old train still in service as BR Class 121 rumbles along the Cardiff Bay line"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/bubble-car-class-121-cardiff-bay-02.jpg\" alt=\"Sixty year old train still in service as BR Class 121 rumbles along the Cardiff Bay line\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Still to be seen ferrying folks along the short stretch of track from Cardiff Queen Street station down to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/cardiff-bay-railway-station-in-old-tiger-bay-quietly-rots-away\/\" target=\"_blank\">Cardiff Bay<\/a> is this 1960 vintage, Class 121 diesel multiple unit, number 121032.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/bubble-car-class-121-cardiff-bay-01.jpg\" alt=\"Sixty year old train still in service as BR Class 121 rumbles along the Cardiff Bay line\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Nicknamed &#8220;bubble cars&#8221; for some\u00a0unfathomable\u00a0reason or another, sixteen Class 121 single-car driving motor vehicles were built from 1960, and these could rattle along at a top speed of 70\u00a0mph.<\/p>\n<p>Sporting slam-doors, vacuum brakes and two large exhaust pipes on the one end, the diesel unit serving the Cardiff Bay line is one of the very last still in revenue-making service.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/bubble-car-class-121-cardiff-bay-03.jpg\" alt=\"Sixty year old train still in service as BR Class 121 rumbles along the Cardiff Bay line\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A look inside the &#8216;Bubblecar&#8217; as it stands at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/cardiff-bay-railway-station-in-old-tiger-bay-quietly-rots-away\/\" target=\"_blank\">Cardiff Bay station<\/a>. Note the positively <em>spacious<\/em> seating arrangements compared to modern &#8220;pack &#8217;em in&#8221; carriages.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/bubble-car-class-121-cardiff-bay-04.jpg\" alt=\"Sixty year old train still in service as BR Class 121 rumbles along the Cardiff Bay line\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The Class 121s came with distinctive twin exhaust pipes, which were curved at the top to fit around a large four-digit route headcode indicator box above the driver&#8217;s cab.<\/p>\n<p>After the system was\u00a0abandoned\u00a0in the 1970s, the indicators were covered up by a black metal plate, which look a bit rubbish.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/bubble-car-class-121-cardiff-bay-05.jpg\" alt=\"Sixty year old train still in service as BR Class 121 rumbles along the Cardiff Bay line\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Class 121 stands at Queen Street,\u00a0early\u00a0evening,\u00a0December 28th 2011.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/bubble-car-class-121-cardiff-bay-06.jpg\" alt=\"Sixty year old train still in service as BR Class 121 rumbles along the Cardiff Bay line\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Love the old-fashioned slam doors with pull down windows!<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/bubble-car-class-121-cardiff-bay-07.jpg\" alt=\"Sixty year old train still in service as BR Class 121 rumbles along the Cardiff Bay line\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A view of the &#8216;non-exhaust&#8217; end of the train as it stands at Cardiff Queen Street.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/images\/bubble-car-class-121-cardiff-bay-08.jpg\" alt=\"Sixty year old train still in service as BR Class 121 rumbles along the Cardiff Bay line\" \/><\/p>\n<p>More <a href=\"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/railway\/\" target=\"_blank\">railways, locos and abandoned stations on my railway section<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>[<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/British_Rail_Class_121\" target=\"_blank\">Wikipedia entry on Class 121s<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Still to be seen ferrying folks along the short stretch of track from Cardiff Queen Street station down to Cardiff Bay is this 1960 vintage, Class 121 diesel multiple unit, &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[193,90,198],"tags":[1196,1200],"class_list":["post-5686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-places","category-railways","category-wales-places","tag-cardiff","tag-railways"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/bubble-car-class-121-cardiff-bay-02.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pQI7P-1tI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5686"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5693,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5686\/revisions\/5693"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}