A redundant carriage from one of Northern‘s former Class 144 Pacer trains has been turned into a non-clinical space for youngsters on the children’s ward and those visiting paediatric outpatients at a hospital at Keighley in Yorkshire.

In 2019, the Department for Transport ran a ‘Transform a Pacer’ competition to win a retired Pacer carriage, with Airedale Hospital & Community Charity in Keighley coming out as the winner.

The Pacer carriage was transformed thanks to Northern’s sponsorship through its Customer and Community Innovation fund, which is intended to deliver projects that are of benefit to the areas that Northern serves throughout the north of England.

Renamed as the Flying Dalesman, the transformed carriage now has creative spaces, sensory zones, areas for reading and learning, and an indoor tree. Outside the carriage, there is also a garden courtyard.

At the front of the train. the driver’s cab has been restored so both parents and children can pretend to be a train driver as they sit in the driver’s seat.

Refurbishment of the carriage was a community effort involving local company Ultimate (Commercial Interiors) Ltd, along with its partners and suppliers.

Pacer trains were built between 1980 and 1987, their design bore many similarities to a Leyland National bus. Northern retired the last pacer retired from its network in 2020.

Since then Northern has introduced 101 brand-new trains that have free Wi-Fi, air-conditioning, at-seat power sockets, and customer information/media screens with real-time information. The new trains are also fully accessible and more spacious with dedicated spaces for wheelchairs and bicycles.

Tony Baxter, regional director at Northern said: “This is a really unique communal space that will no doubt support the wellbeing of many people in the coming years.

“Our pacers gave many decades’ service and now that they’ve been replaced on our network by brand new trains, it’s great to see one of those old carriages being given a new lease of life.”