GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Hockley Station: gwrhd1659

A single car DMU passes through Hockley station on the 2:55pm Snow Hill station to Dudley service on 4th October 1959. Known to many Black Country shoppers as the Dudley Dodger, this service was operated by a DMU built by Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company. This vehicle is a class 122 unit, a diesel railcar built for lightly used passenger services, continuing a long railway tradition of such types of vehicle. And observers of a certain age might recall that these units quickly earned the soubriquet 'bubble car' because of their large, all-round windows. They were introduced in 1958: coincidentally, the same year that a group known as the Playmates achieved a hit on both sides of the Atlantic with an amusing song about a bubble car* that accidentally gets hooked on to the bumper of a Cadillac that then tries to shake it off by accelerating to 120mph.

One of 20 single-car diesel mechanical driving units (with nine additional non-powered trailer cars) built by Gloucester Railway Carriage & Wagon Company and numbered 55000 to 55019. They found their way to many parts of the UK; and as far north as Arbroath and, along with the similar class 121 units (built by Pressed Steel Company), provided an economical option where the cost of running a steam locomotive and carriages could not be justified. In this way it was expected that some threatened routes could avoid closure - but this was before Dr Beeching appeared on the scene. The last was withdrawn from normal passenger service in 1995.

back