Love 'em or hate 'em, they've been a big part of the UK rail scene for the past 30 years and certainly in the North West their time is running out now that crew training has started on the new Northern Class 195 units. These will facilitate a cascade which will see the 142's drop out of the bottom of the fleet, being replaced predominantly by Class 150's.
142005 - which has been a North West unit continually since being delivered wearing GMPTE orange livery - is seen leading an UID classmate away from Mobberley with the 1641 Manchester Piccadilly-Chester service.
Update - as it turned out, this photo of a random 142 has a bit of historic significance. 4 months after this photo was taken, 142005 was the first of the class to be withdrawn from service. Amid fanfare from Northern and with stickers on the side, it retired to Newton Heath depot in mid August 2019 to await its fate. It had to wait until December 2019 before being despatched by road to CF Booth, Rotherham for disposal.
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