Chasewater Railway

The Chasewater Railway was an important location for early DMU preservation, becoming the first heritage railway to house a first generation DMU vehicle back in 1969. This was Class 100 56301, and the railway has been the home of many rare and sometimes unique vehicles over the years such as the Class 109 set. It is debatable that many of these interesting vehicles would have survived had it not been for the Chasewater Railway.

The line itself is an ex colliery route and forms a two mile “horseshoe” around a lake. There are four stations, a causeway, and a large station and shed facilities at their base, Brownhills West. This impressive development was made possible following relocation in 2002/2003 due to the new M6 Toll road being built on the original station site. Having been established early on in the preservation story, the railway has an extensive collection of historical industrial steam and diesel locomotives and a wide variety of rolling stock.

During the 1990’s however the railway cleared all of its early DMU stock which had fallen into disrepair, and concentrated on a small fleet of suburban vehicles, several of which were also used as loco hauled coaching stock, a role they continue to perform today.

During the 2000's, the line hosted a single operating set, and ran a Class 117 set and later a 101 set, both of which later moved on to other railways.

From 2008 for over ten years, the railway only operated suburban DMU vehicles as loco hauled coaching stock, with two vehicles used as such. Their high capacity and low weight suited operation with small ex-industrial locomotives.

In 2020 the railway returned to fullly fledged DMU operation with the preservation of three second generation Class 142 sets.