Inside the Infamous Pacer: The Bus on Rails Commuters Loved to Hate | Curator with a Camera

Since we started Curator with a Camera Anthony, Bob and Thomas have worked their way through some of the most impactful vehicles in our collection including Mallard, Rocket and Flying Scotsman. Today we’re rolling out the big guns and invited Andrew McLean—Head Curator and Assistant Director of the National Railway Museum—to Locomotion in Shildon to film... The Pacer. [Tumbleweed.] Oh. But wait! Could it be that the rudimentary and much-derided Pacer has an interesting story behind it? It does, after all, feature a lot of bus components in its construction—including its body and engines. And just LOOK AT IT. Despite its reputation for discomfort and schreeching its way around the UK’s rail network far beyond its life expectancy, the truth is that the now-retired Pacer enabled millions of people to get not just from A to B but C, D and E too. If anyone can do its story justice, it’s Andrew McLean. Enjoy! This gorgeous engineering masterpiece