Pacer trains and a wartime spirit of ‘waste not, want not’ – The Yorkshire Post says

AT LEAST Northern’s former Pacer trains are not having to be converted into makeshift Nightingale field hospitals...yet.
San and Mim Slatcher with their 'new' Pacer.San and Mim Slatcher with their 'new' Pacer.
San and Mim Slatcher with their 'new' Pacer.
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Meet the young couple who saved two Pacers from scrap - and want to live in one

That much can be said after musician and songwriter Sam Slatcher, and his wife Mim, became the proud owners of two of these former railway relics.

The couple have donated one of the Class 142 diesel units to the Wensleydale Railway as a gift, while the other is being temporarily cared for by the North Yorkshire heritage line ahead of a long-term project to transform it into a home, a holiday let and a community arts space. “We’re definitely getting rid of the Northern livery though,” they say.

New uses are being found for Pacer trains which came to symbolise the North's decline.New uses are being found for Pacer trains which came to symbolise the North's decline.
New uses are being found for Pacer trains which came to symbolise the North's decline.
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But there’s an important point as these trains – symbols of the North’s political, economicand social neglect – are taken out of service. Even they should not be exempt from the ‘waste not, want not’ adage that defined Britain’s response when the country’s principle enemy was fascism rather than an invisible virus.

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well. Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.Postal subscription copies can be ordered by calling 0330 4030066 or by emailing [email protected].

Vouchers, to be exchanged at retail sales outlets - our newsagents need you, too - can be subscribed to by contacting subscriptions on 0330 1235950 or by visiting www.localsubsplus.co.uk where you should select The Yorkshire Post from the list of titles available. If you want to help right now, download our tablet app from the App / Play Stores. Every contribution you make helps to provide this county with the best regional journalism in the country.

Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson

Editor

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