Photo of the month April 2002

 333009 awaits departure from Skipton with the 09.18 to Leeds on 27 August 2001

    The old and the new.A further great success of the privatisation of the railways has been the introduction of new passenger stock to give 21st century standards of comfort and speed to the traveller.Among the more recent introductions are the 16 Siemens class 333 electric multiple units now in service for Northern Spirit on the Aire Valley routes from Leeds and Bradford to Skipton.Introduced last summer,these units,Nos 333001-333016,entered service as three-car units but eight trailing cars are being built to extend the first eight sets to 4-car units.The trains are air conditioned gangwayed sets,fitted with disc brakes,Scarfenberg couplings and CAF design bogies.The power cars are 23.74m long while the trailing cars are 23.15m.The units have two Siemens monomotors of 350kW each per motor car and have a maximum speed of 160km/h.
    Whether by coincidence or not is not known but the former Midland station at Skipton  has recently been tastefully refurbished and with very attractive floral displays,all maintained to a high standard,it made a perfect background to these sleek new trains.