Quite a large proportion of passenger train traffic in Wales is operated by Arriva Trains Wales. This one is a class 158 old diesel multiple unit. It was running an airport train service from Birmingham International airport to Cardiff in Wales.
Picture from Birmingham International airport's train station 31.10.2014 by Ilkka Siissalo.

A similar airport train service the following day. Class 158 trains can be either one or two coaches long. Here we see a combination of one unit with just a single coach plus another unit with two coaches.
Picture from Birmingham International airport's train station 1.11.2014 by Ilkka Siissalo.

A closer look at the front of the same train.
Picture from Birmingham International airport's train station 1.11.2014 by Ilkka Siissalo.

A diesel multiple unit of the class 175 of Arriva Trains Wales. Class 175 was in Britain a series of Alstom Coradia 1000 type trains built in Britain 1999-2001 at Washwood Heath. The first ones entered service in 2000. They had in the beginning a lot of problems and they were used by First North Western and Wales & Borders before being all moved to Arriva Trains Wales in December 2003. They were designed to be 200 km/h fast regional express trains but they were never being used at such high speeds. At the time of this picture the whole fleet was operating for Arriva, but they kept changing operators several times. Since 2021 they run for Transport for Wales Rail which is owned by the local government. The trains are owned by Angel Trains which then makes agreements with whoever might be the next operator.
Picture from Cardiff 4.11.2014 by Sanna Siissalo.

A closer look at one of the class 175 DMUs.
Picture from Cardiff 4.11.2014 by Sanna Siissalo.

This train is a former British Rail, then Arriva Trains Wales class 150 diesel multiple unit. It is a dieselhydraulic train designed and built by BREL, the British Rail Engineering Ltd. at York carriage works. They were first taken in use in 1984. This was to be a unit that was markedly better than the cheap Pacer units (see below) with an acceleration speed comparable to EMUs. 137 units were built. This is a train of the so called Sprinter family. Its top speed is 120 km/h. This unit is from the second production batch as evidenced by the tube connection that allows passengers to move from one unit to the next one while the train is moving.
Picture from Cardiff 4.11.2014 by Sanna Siissalo.

Another look at the same class 150 train as above.
Picture from Cardiff 4.11.2014 by Sanna Siissalo.

A class 150 train seen closer by.
Picture from Cardiff 4.11.2014 by Sanna Siissalo.

These trains are class 143 "Pacers". They were built in the beginning of the 1980s simply because there was a political will especially from the then prime minister Margaret Thatcher to modernise British Rail as quickly as possible and as cheaply as possible. These trains were built using as much parts from existing bus models as possible to keep costs down. But the result was trains that did not last long, that were slow and not too comfortable. There was a whole family of these Pacer trains. The first ones of class 141 were based on the popular Leyland National buses. British Rail was still seeking to find ways of getting better trains than the class 141, so it placed an order to the manufacturers Hunslet-Barclay and Walter Alexander. That led to this model, class 143 in the mid-1980s. But because the Pacer family of trains did not comply with the regulations of the Rail Vehicle Accessibility (Interoperable Rail System) Regulations of 2008, they began to be withdrawn quickly. It was too expensive to modify them to be compliant. Only Arriva Trains Wales took the opportunity to keep these trains running until the legal deadline of December 2020 and actually there was an extension so that Transport of Wales ran these until May 2021.
Picture from Cardiff 4.11.2014 by Sanna Siissalo.

Two class 143 Pacers are leaving Cardiff on a service to Barry Island.
Picture from Cardiff 4.11.2014 by Sanna Siissalo.

Class 142 is the other one of those a little bit better Pacers. It resembles the first Pacer, class 141, very much, but its chassis is wider, giving passengers more space. It also had a microprocessor controlled automatic transmission and it was no longer susceptible to short grounding problems like the first Pacer was, but other than that, this was still a "Leyland bus on rails". Passengers hated them, mainly because the axles of Pacers were directly fixed to the chassis, meaning that these trains were extremely noisy, especially when running over multiple switches.
Picture from Cardiff 4.11.2014 by Sanna Siissalo.

One of the improvements of class 142 over the older class 141 was also that it was possible to couple a class 142 Pacer with a class 150 DMU and use them in tandem as a single train. The older models could only be coupled with another similar unit.
Picture from Cardiff 4.11.2014 by Sanna Siissalo.

Another look at a class 142 Pacer train.
Picture from Cardiff 4.11.2014 by Sanna Siissalo.

The interior of an Arriva Trains Wales refreshed Class 142.
Picture by Peter Skuce 18.3.2013. Published under the Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0 license.

An Arriva class 153 railbus. These were created in 1991 by cutting older two wagons long class 155 trains in two halves and adding new driver's cabs. To see more pictures of these "Super Sprinter" class 153 one coach long railbuses which finally replaced the Pacers, please scroll down to the section of First Great Western trains.
Picture from Cardiff 4.11.2014 by Sanna Siissalo.

Here is still one more picture of the now only one coach long class 153 railbuses. They are used in rural lines and short services with not so many travellers, like here on a service from Cardiff to Swansea.
Picture from Cardiff 4.11.2014 by Sanna Siissalo.

In 2014 the Crosscountry trains franchise was still being operated by Arriva. This is a Crosscountry class 170 diesel multiple unit. To see more pictures of Crosscountry trains, please see the Scotland (UK) section of this website.
Picture from Cardiff Central 4.11.2014 by Sanna Siissalo.

An HST train of Great Western Railway from the times when GWR was a franchise service of First group. HST stands for high speed train. These are/were trains with one class 43 diesel locomotive at both ends and Mark III carriages in between. HST trains are also known by the name Intercity 125 where the number 125 refers to the train's maximum speed in miles per hour.
Picture from Cardiff Central 4.11.2014 by Sanna Siissalo.

The same class 43 locomotive of the HST train seen a bit from its back.
Picture from Cardiff Central 4.11.2014 by Sanna Siissalo.

This picture shows clearly how long the HST trains are/were.
Picture from Cardiff Central 4.11.2014 by Sanna Siissalo.

A side view of one of the HST train's class 43 locomotives.
Picture from Cardiff Central 4.11.2014 by Sanna Siissalo.

A class 158 diesel multiple unit.
Picture from Cardiff Central 4.11.2014 by Sanna Siissalo.

A class 158 diesel multiple unit, the same as above.
Picture from Cardiff Central 4.11.2014 by Sanna Siissalo.

A three coaches long class 158 DMU train is approaching Cardiff.
Picture from Cardiff Central 4.11.2014 by Sanna Siissalo.

A First Great Western Railway class 158 and an Arriva Wales class 175 meeting on the same track, intending soon to depart in opposite directions.
Picture from Cardiff Central 4.11.2014 by Sanna Siissalo.

This one is a class 153 "Super Sprinter". They were created in 1991 from older class 155 trains which was a fixed two-coach set. The two coaches were separated and new driver's cabs were installed so that the end result was this one coach long railbus intended for rural lines and their short services. But here we see two of them running together once again as a two wagons long train. These trains have changed operator quite often and by the time when this picture was taken they still carried the colours of a previous operator, only the firstgreatwestern sticker texts had been added to the sides. Later these same trains were moved to Arriva Trains Wales and then to Transport of Wales Rail.
Picture from Cardiff Central 4.11.2014 by Sanna Siissalo.

Here we see a similar class 153 railbus but now already in the colours of Arriva Wales..
Picture from Cardiff Central 4.11.2014 by Sanna Siissalo.

A class 66 cargo locomotive, still in the colours of the former English, Welsh & Scottish Railway EWS but by then owned by DB of Germany pulling a heavy train of cargo wagons carrying rolls of steel plate through the Cardiff Central station.
Picture from Cardiff Central 4.11.2014 by Sanna Siissalo.

The same train as above. It was hauling an immensely heavy train of steel plate rolls, possibly for making new cars.
Picture from Cardiff Central 4.11.2014 by Sanna Siissalo.

A class 66 machine of EWS/DB is coming. The wagons are for transporting heavy rolls of steel plate.
Picture from Cardiff Central 4.11.2014 by Sanna Siissalo.

A proper look at an approaching class 66 machine of EWS/DB.
Picture from Cardiff Central 4.11.2014 by Sanna Siissalo.

A heavy EWS / DB Cargo train with a class 66 locomotive rolling past Cardiff Central.
Picture from Cardiff Central 4.11.2014 by Sanna Siissalo.

A quite short cargo train of just three wagons but possibly being used for the same purpose than the previous one, but now running empty in the opposite direction and with a somewhat older locomotive of the class 60. This one had already been painted in the DB's red colours, but it nevertheless carried the outdated logotext of DB Schenker. The changes in DB's train livery have been too rapid for the trains to keep track of the latest changes.
Picture from Cardiff Central 4.11.2014 by Sanna Siissalo.

The same train as above. It looks like it would be a similar steel plate train as the class 66 was pulling above but it may be here returning empty to the steel works to then take up a similar really long rake of open steel coil wagons. Who knows, this is just a guess.
Picture from Cardiff Central 4.11.2014 by Sanna Siissalo.