OUT of action since the lease with ScotRail expired in May 2022, Brodie Leasing’s No. 156478 has been put up for auction. The closing date for bids, which are being handled by Apex Group, a firm which specialises in the sale of surplus assets, is December 6.
No. 156478 has an interesting history, in that it was declared a write-off by Angel Trains after suffering damage on December 21, 2014, when it became immersed in flood water near Mauchline (near East Kilbride). The unit took two days to be recovered. After being written off, it was purchased by Brodie Leasing (a sister company to Brodie Engineering) and, following refurbishment/rebuild at Kilmarnock to the latest specification, leased to ScotRail. It emerged in October 2016 and returned to service the following month.
There are six Class 156s in store (see table), and Angel Trains has previously listed its four units at Ely as being available for lease or disposal. The Brodie set has undergone a major overhaul more recently than the Angel units and has covered around 480,000 miles since its return to traffic in 2016.
Aside from a short spell at Cardiff when new in 1989, providing cover due to door problems with the Class 155 fleet, it has been based in Scotland
