LMS Route: Rugby to Wolverhampton

Hampton in Arden Station: lnwrhia2967

A newly introduced three-car Metro-Cammell DMU stands at Hampton in Arden's up platform on 15th June 1958. The DMU is on the 2:50pm Birmingham (New Street) - Coventry - Leamington Spa (Avenue) calling at all stations between New Street and Coventry and at Kenilworth between Coventry and Leamington Spa. The British Rail Class 101 diesel multiple units were built by Metro-Cammell at Washwood Heath in Birmingham from 1956 to 1959, following construction of a series of prototype units. This class proved to be one of the most successful and longest-lived of BR's First Generation DMUs, second in age only to the Class 121, with the final five units being withdrawn on 24th December 2003. The oldest set was, by then, just over 47 years old. The Class 101 was one of the largest classes of first-generation DMUs and, partly thanks to their relatively late withdrawal from revenue-earning service, numerous vehicles have been preserved on heritage railways, for example the Great Central Railway and the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. There are only 2 centre cars preserved. One is at Ecclesbourne Valley Railway and the another is at Mid-Norfolk Railway. One buffet car survived and is the Great Central Railway.

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