59701 at the Pentrefelin depot, Llangollen shortly after being transferred from the East Lancashire Railway in March 2026.
The class 110 DMUs were built by the Birmingham Railway Carriage & Wagon Company (BRCW) and introduced during 1961. They were effectively the Mark 2 version of the company's class 104 that had been introduced during 1957 and they looked quite different due to shape of their cab windows and the introduction of a four-character headcode box as shown by the following picture.
Class 110 (left) and class 104 (right)
Built for use on the Trans Pennine services that included, as their core section, the Calder Valley line between Leeds and Manchester Victoria via Bradford and Halifax, the class 110s soon gained the nickname 'Calder Valley' units. The route features some steep gradients - especially a 1 in 50 climb out of Bradford in both directions - so they were supplied with extra power in the shape of two Rolls Royce 180hp engines per power car instead of the two Leyland 150hp ones that were fitted to the class 104.
59701 joined the fleet at Llangollen at the beginning of March 2026 as part of a three-car 'Calder Valley' set (51813/59701/51842) for an initial three-year loan following a road transfer from the East Lancashire Railway.
Further information including a detailed history about 59701 can be found on the railcar web site at https://preserved.railcar.co.uk/59701.html