AN EXHIBITION space reserved at the National Railway Museum for a train remains empty because the “clapped-out” model is still in commercial operation in the north of England, the Star can reveal.

The British Rail Class Pacer 142 train is due to sit in the museum in York alongside exhibits such as a replica of Stephenson’s Rocket and other relics of the railway industry.

But about 100 of the ramshackle diesel engine trains are still being used by Northern rail, 12 years after they should have been withdrawn from service.

The museum says in its latest plan of exhibits that it is awaiting the arrival of one of the trains. A museum spokesman said: “We would like the Pacer to come here. It is worthy of a place here.”

Rail union RMT described the train as “an antique piece of obsolete kit.”

Pacer 142s were built between 1985 and 1987 as a stop-gap to fill a shortage of passenger rolling stock. They were to be scrapped in 2007 after 20 years in service.

The 142s gained a reputation for rattling, shuddering and bouncing along tracks, much to the discomfort of passengers. Screeching noises are a result of its difficulty in rounding bends.

Mick Whelan, general secretary of train drivers’ union Aslef, said: “This would be funny if it weren’t so serious. Funny, because the National Railway Museum can’t get its hands on what is now, literally, a museum piece because it’s still in operation. But serious because it reveals the problems passengers and staff have to deal with every day on the privatised rail network in Britain.

“The failure to introduce enough new trains means the privatised train companies treat the travelling public as little better than cattle. Passengers in the regions are disadvantaged by the cascading system of newer trains for the south-east and inter-city services, and hand-me-downs for everyone and everywhere else.

“Pacers — with a modified bus body placed on a freight wagon frame — were only ever meant to be a short-term solution to a long-term problem on the permanent way. Instead, they’re still here, 40 years later. It’s high time we had the trains, and the infrastructure, fit for the 21st century.”

When asked why the 142s are still in use, a spokesman for Northern said the company was not to blame.

“We have only had the franchise for two-and-a-half years, and the 142s pre-date the franchise,” he said, before adding that the 142s would be phased out by December this year.

Northern does not own the 142s, but leases them from a firm called Angel Trains.

The public relations company acting for Angel Trains is called Grayling — though there appears to be no connection between the company and Transport Secretary Chris Grayling.

A Grayling spokeswoman said that the 142s are “a low-cost solution on regional services that may not otherwise have had an economic passenger service.”

Mick Cash, general secretary of rail union RMT, said: “Nothing sums up the state of Britain’s railways under failing Grayling better than the fact that a clapped-out, antique piece of obsolete kit cannot be donated to a museum because it’s still in service. 

“That’s transport in Britain in 2019 under the Tories for you.”