The Ecclesbourne Valley Railway DMU Association 

Class 121s W55027 & W55031 were built by Pressed Steel at their Paisley Works in 1958 to Lot No. 30518, diagram 512, with 65 2nd class seats.

 

In 2001 they were selected for conversion into special Severn Tunnel Rescue vehicles. The modifications were extensive. Now wearing the departmental number of 977975 & 977976, all but the cab windows and the guards door windows were removed and in their place a large opening ramp was installed to allow boarding if there was an emergency in the tunnel. The guards van had a generator unit installed which provided 240v power to the vehicle with strip lights. Internally, the vehicles featured equipment for dealing with injuries as well as areas for passengers to ride standing up. They were retired from this work in the mid 2000 and eventually became a source of spares to keep the ageing Chiltern Railways and Arriva's fleet operational. Finally, in a heavily stripped state, they were moved to the Barry Island Tourist Railway in early 2014.

 

977975 was purchased from them by Wyvernrail being very heavily stripped, for use as a Permanent Way vehicle at the EVR. However, the costs of restoration were underestimated and the vehicle is beyond economic repair.

​

977976 was purchased by an EVR member, as a contribution to the above P-Way project. Even less complete but the bogies were in better condition so this was purchased so they could be exchanged. The converted interior has been stripped out and used as storage. Always considered temporary with a view to scrapping once a better storage solution materialised. It has yielded some obscure parts both for projects on site and other railways.

​