I was distinctly underwhelmed, when as an 11 year old, I first encountered British Rail Southern Region, sitting in what must have been an EPB or HAP unit at Victoria.
These were not the exciting railways I had come to expect after a childhood on the Western and Scottish Regions, and they were a far cry from the ‘Royal Scot’, that had just brought the family all the way from Glasgow to Euston. Not the steam engines, the named train.

I found myself staring at a sea of rail blue multiple units. They were by no means pretty. Were they stylish? Well, no. Distinctive? No. For a young railway enthusiast these EMU's did nothing to quicken the pulse, and I have a theory that we might find railway enthusiasm is not as strong in the home counties as elsewhere (per capita) due to the daily lack of inspiration for those in their impressionable years.

Only a theory, mind, I’m sure there will be many who disagree.

We were heading for Maidstone, Kent, and for some reason we were on the stopper. The journey seemed interminable, but I did manage to see a hundred identical EMUs. I hadn’t ventured into the number-taking fraternity at this point, but it wasn’t far off.

In later years I came to appreciate these EMU's more, in a perverse sort of way. In the same way I have a perverse admiration for buses I never had when younger. That EMU’s are engineering excellence is without doubt, they are unpretentious items that transport huge quantities of passengers back and forth ceaselessly.

So here’s a question. Does the humble 4-EPB or 4-SUB unit have a claim to be the best train ever to run on British rails? Scoff you might, but how many others have performed intensively for 45-50 years in such huge numbers?

They didn’t particularly float my boat in those days, though the Classes 33, 71, 73 and 74 lifted the monotony.
And yet nowadays I do have this craving for a Bachmann 2-EPB. And it won't go away!

And it was on the Medway valley line, on the customary 2-HAP from Strood to Maidstone Barracks (via Cuxton, Halling, Snodland, New Hythe, Aylesford) that schoolfriends and I first noticed the numbers on the front of these units.

Maidstone Barracks, from the Middleton Press Book, one of 3 stations in Maidstone, and one I arrived at for many a year

And we first realised that we could travel the entire journey sitting in the luggage rack, but I shall draw a veil over this.