Enter the Class 156/9
THE first of East Midlands Railway’s additional Class 156 units, transferred in from Greater Anglia, was put into service on December 28. Now identified as No. 156909, the former No. 156409 has been reliveried in EMR purple/white/grey colours with ‘EMR Regional’ branding. Its first working in its new guise was the 2S07/07.31 Nottingham-Skegness.
The former Greater Anglia sets are being renumbered into the No. 1569xx series to differentiate them from the existing EMR fleet, as the two types are incompatible with each other owing to differences in the Public Address/Passenger Information Systems.
No. 156409 ran from Norwich Crown Point, which had been its base since April 2005, to Derby Etches Park on November 27. No. 156416 (which will become No. 156916) had similarly moved two days beforehand and a third set, No. 156412, formed the 10.05 Norwich Crown Point-Derby Etches Park on December 23. Two more sets are due to be released in the coming weeks.
■ Following its short-term hire to
